Blame It On The Stardust

| Rae | •Focusing on plants and the cosmos•

[giftofgabber]

National Weather Service just said to watch for grave and ghostly apparitions of omen, misery and suspense between noon and 12:05 PM tomorrow

[hackedhearts-deactivated2024111]

“Tell me your favorite weird fact.”

The Earth is covered in corpses. We breathe the air the dead exude, eat the food they nourished with their decay, pour their remains into our cars, wear them and sleep on them. And then we call them scary without even noticing that they are present in every single thing of our lives. We live because of the dead.

[naillykej]

[misfitwashere]

I wrote a eulogy

"I wrote a eulogy for my best friend last week. Then I read it to him. At the pub. On a Tuesday."

He was alive, holding a pint, looking at me like I'd lost my mind. Maybe I have.

I'm Mick. I'm 70. The man across the table was Barry. Seventy-two. Best mate for 46 years. Met on a building site in 1979. He dropped a plank on my foot. I called him something unrepeatable. He bought me a pint after the shift. Haven't gone a week without talking since.

Three months ago we went to a funeral. Bloke we'd worked with. Cancer. The eulogies were beautiful - people saying what he meant to them, things they'd clearly never said to his face. And all I could think was, he can't hear any of this.

Every beautiful sentence. Every "he changed my life." Said to a room of crying people and a box of wood.

I turned to Barry. Whispered, "What a waste."

Drove home. Couldn't sleep. Because I realised, if Barry died tomorrow, I'd stand up and say extraordinary things about this man. Things I've never said in 46 years. And he'd be in the box, missing all of it.

So I wrote them down. Took a week. Harder than expected - not finding the words, but admitting I had them.

Rang him. "Tuesday. The Crown. Need to read you something."

"Have you joined a book club?"

"Just come."

Same corner table. Pint of bitter. Crisps. I pulled out the paper. He saw my hands shake.

"Mick. What's this?"

"Your eulogy. I'm reading it now because I'm not wasting it on a day you can't hear it."

"Have you gone mad?"

"Probably. Shut up and listen."

I read it. In a pub. To a man very much alive and very much uncomfortable.

I told him about the plank and how it was the best injury of my life. About the night he drove forty minutes in rain to help change a tyre. About how he rang every day for three months after my divorce and never once asked "Are you alright?" - just talked about football and weather, because he knew I didn't need a question. I needed a voice.

I told him he was the funniest man I'd ever known and his jokes were terrible and both things were true. That he'd been a better father than he thinks. That his wife's a saint and he knows it. That I'd have been a worse man without him.

He didn't look at me. Stared at his pint. Jaw tight. Doing that thing men do when the feelings arrive and they'd rather swallow glass than show it.

When I finished, long silence. Then he picked up his pint, took a sip, and said,

"You're paying for the next round. And the one after."

That was his answer. Perfect. Because Barry doesn't say "I love you too." He says "you're buying."

But in the car park, he hugged me. Not the quick back-pat. A real one. Thirty seconds. Neither let go first.

And he said quietly into my shoulder, "Don't read that again at the real one. I want new material."

Who would you write a eulogy for - while they're still here?

Don't wait. The flowers can't hear. The box doesn't laugh. Say it now. At the pub. Over a bad cup of tea. You'll feel ridiculous.

They'll look uncomfortable. It'll be the most important thing you've ever done.

Read them the speech while they can still hug you in the car park.”

.

[technofeudalism]

Declassified CIA Guide to Sabotaging Fascism Is Suddenly Viral

The World War II-era "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" is full of steps that office workers can take to resist leadership.

A declassified World War II-era government guide to “simple sabotage” is currently one of the most popular open source books on the internet. The book, called “Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” was declassified in 2008 by the CIA and “describes ways to train normal people to be purposefully annoying telephone operators, dysfunctional train conductors, befuddling middle managers, blundering factory workers, unruly movie theater patrons, and so on. In other words, teaching people to do their jobs badly.”  Over the last week, the guide has surged to become the 5th-most-accessed book on Project Gutenberg, an open source repository of free and public domain ebooks. It is also the fifth most popular ebook on the site over the last 30 days, having been accessed nearly 60,000 times over the last month (just behind Romeo and Juliet). 

Link to the Guide at Project Gutenberg can be found here

A Wikisource entry can be found here.

Mirrors can be found here, here, here, here and here.

[breelandwalker]

Gosh it would be a shame if this got even MORE visibility.

Whoops my cursor slipped.

[nerdygaymormon]

A reminder that sell-buy dates or best-used-by dates are not the same as expiration dates.

I love that a food bank is providing this info as they are experts in stretching food budgets and knowledgable in shelf-stable food items

[etakeh]

So I followed the link to the website and found the longer list.

The website puts a link to the USDA site which links to foodsafety dot gov who really wants you to use the app, but you can bypass it.

Also a link to the Canadian government's advisory on best-before dates.

Both sites have links to pages that get more into food storage.

[no-more-dead-dogs]

my beautiful wife, severe thunderstorm warning, is texting me 😌😚😍😍

[sukimas]

"you should be at the club" i should be in the woods. performing the ritual.

[creature-wizard]

Tales of Times Forgotten articles on ancient polytheism, atheism, witchcraft, Christianity, & other historical topics everyone should read

Misconceptions about the Witch-Trials

Debunking the So-Called “Dark Ages”

Was Giordano Bruno Really a “Martyr for Science”?

Who Was The First God?

Did Ancient “Pagans” Really Worship Nature?

Was the “Green Man” Really an Ancient Pagan Deity?

Misconceptions about the Library of Alexandria

Modern Stereotypes About Ancient Civilizations

Ancient Greek Misogyny

Why Did The Patriarchal Greeks And Romans Worship Such Powerful Goddesses?

Did the Ancient Greeks Really Believe in Their Myths?

Did the Ancient Greeks Ever Climb Mount Olympos?

What Evidence Is There for Atheism in Ancient Greece?

No, the Romans Did Not Just “Steal” All the Greek Deities

What Was the Conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity Really Like?

Things That Did Not Cause the Fall of the Roman Empire

No, Transgender People Are Not a Sign of Cultural Collapse

Christian Adaptation of Pagan Iconography

Greek Writers Quoted in the New Testament

No, the Christian Cross Is Not Based on the Egyptian Ankh

Just How Pagan Is Christmas Really?

No, Santa Claus Is Not Inspired by Odin

The Long, Strange, Fascinating History of Santa Claus

The Origins of the Christmas Tree

The Not-So-Pagan Origins of Easter

No, Easter Is Not Named After Ishtar

No, Groundhog Day Is Not of Ancient Pagan Origin

Here’s How We Know the Canonical Gospels Were Originally Anonymous

Lucifer Is Not a Name for Satan!

Was Jesus Copied Off the Egyptian God Horus?

Was Jesus a Communist?

What Does the Genesis Creation Story Mean?

Is Everyone Really Born an Atheist?

No, There Isn’t a Conspiracy to “Hide the Truth” about Ancient History

Who Are The Illuminati Really?

The Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis Is Racist and Harmful

The Truth about Atlantis

What Do Conservatives Really Mean When They Talk about “Western Civilization”?

The "Hero's Journey" is Nonsense

Jordan Peterson Does Not Understand Mythology

Jordan Peterson Does Not Understand Ancient Languages

No, Public Universities Aren’t Dominated by Evil Atheist Professors Seeking to Destroy Students’ Faith

[be-bhinn]

Use witchcraft WITH modern medicine, not INSTEAD of it.

[redjennies]

okay you know those posts that are like "this male character archetype would be better as a woman"? you know what we need more of? female loudmouth braggart hero antagonists. women who are cocky and comedically vainglorious and beloved by the public and also objectively suck so fucking bad. I'm not kidding. I don't care how sexist the audience would be about that. I want to see a woman who should be played by whoever the female equivalent of Nathan Fillion is.

[transcyberism]

no one ever did it like her

[takingoffmyshoes]

they told me not to get lost in the weeds, but these are lush, beautiful, and ecologically necessary native plants so it's probably fine

[blu3b3rryj4mp1r3]

beanie baby dragon is crossing your dash

[1000-life-hacks]

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Purple Deadnettle 2025 Master Post

(Lamium purpureum)

It's an edible and medicinal herb, with young leaves and flowers used in salads or teas, and it provides early nectar for bees.

Young leaves and flowers are edible raw in salads or cooked in soups and stir-fries.

Traditionally used for its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, often for skin and respiratory issues.

(Quick notes found through google. Please use caution and further research before doing your own experimentation with this foraged food).

Omlet (3/23/25)

Czech Easter stuffing (4/9/25)

Purple Deadnettle Pilaf with Walnuts and Poached Chicken (4/12/25)

Eggs Florentine (4/13/25)

Gyeran Jjim (Korean Steamed Eggs) (4/14/25)

Czech green sauce for Maundy Thursday (4/17/25)

Toad in the hole with green sauce (4/18/25)

Šunkofleky (Easter noodle casserole) (4/20/25)

[homunculus-argument]

"If you accept any food from the fae, they shall never let you go" is a human belief. The fair folk stand by the principle that if you feed 'em, you gotta keep 'em. If wildlife learns to rely on you for food, you have already fucked up, and you can't just stop feeding them cold turkey. That human is your responsibility now. Because you left your peach cobbler unsupervised.

[kii-tty]