my unifying theory of life.

Atlanta. Older than you. Disgustingly cheerful and prone to blather about random junk.

[rubbish78]

“Guess who?? Yes, that’s Ewan McGregor at Loopy Mango with our Big Loop merino yarn - he bought it for one of his knitter friends.  Turns out he knows how to knit too!  And he is soooooooooooooooo cute!!!” (x)

[daily-ewan]

As a mad knitter myself, this one never ceases to make me smile. Ewan with yarn: so fabulous!

[wisteriafic]

Untitled ficlet

Peggy and Ted (and Shirley), set prior to “Severance”.

+++++

In her mind, she’s asked Ted a hundred questions.

-- What the hell were you thinking with that mustache? -- What the hell were you thinking when you ran away? -- Was it just a fling? Have you forgotten about it? Should I?

The first makes Peggy roll her eyes. That plus the office gossip about all his “dates” makes her think he’s turning in to Don – or, even worse, Roger. She dodged a bullet.

The second and third are more complicated. She has to tell herself that he meant what he said about loving her so much that he had to run away. The alternative is too humiliating.

All of those questions stay in her mind, though. Since he moved back four months ago, they only talk about work. That’s it. And it’s been fine. Not the great creative partnership they once had, but they’ve managed to sort something out that suits her. She can live with it, as long as she avoids everything else.

So of course it has to end someday. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, all the elevators but one are broken. She stands there waiting, then Shirley and Ted approach. Great. Peggy punches the down arrow a few more times, as if that’ll help. Shirley – who gets along famously with Ted and still hates her – is in the middle of some story about her husband cooking the turkey. Ted chuckles. Peggy rolls her eyes.

“Got another big date this weekend, Ted?” Shirley teases, and Peggy just knows she’s twisting the knife because everyone’s heard the rumors about what happened last year. At least they’re standing behind her and can’t see Peggy’s face right now.

“Nothing like that, sorry,” he replies. “I’m meeting with a realtor about buying an apartment. No point in renting anymore.”

Peggy can just picture it: some swanky bachelor pad where he can throw cocktail parties for all those floozies and then –

Will that damn elevator ever show up?

Ted clears his throat. “What about you, Peggy? Any plans?” He step forward, so that now she has no choice but to glance over at him.

There it is: that look in his eyes. Soft and warm, with a hint of a smile. The one that used to make her shiver. Feel loved. But he is a liar. He is a salesman, faking emotion to win over the client. Yet it still makes her shiver. She hates that. She hates that she wants to believe it might still be real.

She has to be polite and answer, so she shrugs. “My boyfriend and I are throwing a Christmas party.” She doesn’t have a boyfriend, but he doesn’t know that. Let him imagine whatever he wants. Serves him right.

His voice sounds normal when he replies, “Sounds nice. I hope it’s a rousing success.” But he can’t hide the way he flinches, or how his face darkens for just a second.

The elevator arrives. Finally.

It’s crowded, and none of them talk the whole way down. But the nearness of him – the fact that they almost had a conversation – scratches something in her chest. As they cross the lobby (Shirley already hurrying away), she remembers one more simple question that she has silently asked him so many times since he came back. And something possesses her to call out his name.

He stops short and turns on a heel. “Yes, Peggy?”

She keeps her voice even. “Are you happy?”

He doesn’t say anything for a too-long moment, and she wants to mutter, “Forget it,” and run away. But she stands her ground and meets his gaze.

“No,” he finally says. His shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath. “But I think I will be.”

His hand comes up like he’s going to touch her, and she has no idea whether or not she wants him to. Then his arm drops, and he says, “What about you? Are you happy?”

She manages her brightest smile. “Yes.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear it.” He stares at her for another few seconds, then he turns and disappears through the revolving door.

She stares at the space where he used to be. She’s not happy yet, but she thinks she will be someday.

+++++ End (1/1)

[wisteriafic]

Totally unspoiled predictions for the last three episodes of The Americans S3

Cut-tagged just in case anyone hasn’t watched last week’s episode. TL;DR warning.

1. Henry accidentally rats them out to Stan, since they’re spending so much time together. That, or he also finds out and is totally cool with it. Meanwhile, Paige isn’t on board with this news, but she keeps her mouth shut.

2. Gabriel betrays them. At first, I thought he might be the only one so far who is genuinely on their side, but then Claudia and Kate never really turned against Elizabeth and Phillip, as unpopular as they might have been with the Jennings. (BTW, I was rewatching S1, and I’d forgotten that they mention Gabriel way back then when they first meet Claudia.)

3. Martha will live! I mean, c’mon, we’ve been putting a #PoorMartha bullseye on her forehead since her first episode, so the really shocking twist would be for her NOT to die. Plus, I suspect she might learn the whole truth and start fully aiding Clark; we already saw hints of that when she tipped him off to the mail robot. Chekhov’s gun will obviously make another appearance. (Alternate prediction: she dies, just because Fields and Weisberg are so fond of the story about the women who committed suicide when they learned they were married to Soviet spies.)

4. Oleg and Stan’s plan to unmask Zinaida will backfire in a spectacular fashion. Duh. But it’ll all turn out all right because Oleg must stay on this show forever and ever.

5. Stan might get framed for the pen, because things never go his way even when he kicks ass by figuring out Zinaida’s game. Somehow it’ll work out, because Emmerich’s too big to leave the show before the end. Gaad will probably take the fall, though, since it was on his watch -- and that’s probably how the real FBI works.

6. Nina will get out of this mess without sleeping with Anton or otherwise using her sexuality! Yay, Nina!

7. Wild guess: Pastor Tim and his wife are undercover agents from the Centre, tasked with helping to recruit Paige. We know from Zinaida that the KGB and Directorate-S often have no idea about concurrent missions. And although Gabriel (who might not know about Tim) promised they’d let Elizabeth and Phillip handle the process of turning Paige, I can’t imagine they’d leave such a huge potential asset up to chance.

8. Arkady will continue to be a thousand kinds of awesome (yet suffer from a tragic lack of screen time.)

[wisteriafic]

Sister Winifred Rides The Bus

Oh, she's quite the traveler, our Sister Winifred! Where will she go today, spreading joy hither and yon?

Main Cast: Sister Winifred and the afflicted guest stars who have to sit by her on the bus and be subjected to her homespun wisdom.

New Characters to be added: Drunken soldiers, wayward teens, criminals on the run, angry bus drivers.

Sample episode plot: Eddie O'Malley, escaped convict, drunkenly decides to turn himself in to the authorities after meeting Sister Winifred on the bus; takes her teachings to heart; prays for forgiveness; later learns she's not even a Catholic nun.

Source: previously.tv

[wisteriafic]

Alison Wright on Martha’s Americans Future

Stay safe, Martha!

[wisteriafic]

Mad Men Boss Matthew Weiner Explains the Premiere

Confirmation! 

How did you decide which characters to give the mustaches to? Well, we’ve toyed with Roger’s mustache a couple of times, but we had to wait until there was a mustache that looked good on him. John Slattery doesn’t look good with a white, trimmed mustache — it’s just too Larry Tate. This soup-strainer thing that’s going on is much more appropriate for him. And I just felt that Ted, who’s newly single with a bachelor pad, will do everything he can to appear hip.

[vitruvians]

BOOK COVERS - Shakespearean Works

[wisteriafic]

Ted throughout the first half of S7.

(I wrote this last summer but sat on it until the last possible moment before S7.5. Hope you enjoy it!)

[seminolefreebird-deactivated201]

[janemaverick]

I had to break out my hoodie last night since I put it away last spring. Looooove fall weather!

[carolineframke]

About a week ago, my A.V. Club editor and friend Sonia got a world of shit in the comments section of a review, and it got shut down. It wasn’t the first time the comments got nasty towards her, or even the third, or the fifth…at this point, getting a world of shit is just part of her reviewing...

[iraffiruse]

[conspicuouslad]

I read every one of these to my wife until she screamed at me to shut up.

[perenniallyfascinating]

Homeland + Tumblr

[youhadmeuntiltroll]

Peggy Olson  - Episodes # 1

[quarterclever]

Julie Decker writes about being an asexual woman here : the-toast(.)net/2014/07/01/enjoy-houseful-cats-asexual-woman/ and I thought it was bang on the intersection of gender oppression and asexuality. Also *huggs *

This is a great piece, everyone should go check it out! You’re absolutely right— it’s brilliant when dealing with intersectionality. Thanks for linking it to me drivingsideways33!

[literatureloveaffair-blog]

There have been an alarming number of posts linking to pirated copies of books floating around lately, so I thought it’d be productive to share some of my own legal ways of accessing books instead of fighting the posts themselves.

If you would like to know more about book piracy and discussions surrounding the issue, here are some links:

25 thoughts on book piracy

Book piracy - an insiders perspective 

Why I stopped pirating and started paying for media 

The ethics of internet piracy 

The real problem with piracy 

Piracy is yesterday’s worry for today’s ‘artisan authors’

Kindle e-book piracy accelerates

John Green: Why libraries are different from piracy

Across the digital divide

Now on to some free books!

Libraries 

Libraries are wonderful. A collection of books that people want you to take home and read. What could be better?

If they don’t have a book you want, have a chat to the librarians. They are usually all very helpful and would love to hear suggestions of books, and even get the book you want in stock for you. 

Library cards are a wonderful resource, but depending on your library you may need a permanent address - if you can’t supply this that’s fine! You don’t need a library card to use libraries. Go in, grab a book, read for a while. 

Many libraries now have e-book borrowing services available. It is well worth checking whether your library offers this if you prefer reading e-books or even listening to audiobooks. 

Overdrive is a marvelous program that partners with many libraries to provide e-book lending, check the site to see whether any libraries near you participate!

Classics

Books in the public domain can be accessed for free in many formats 

Project Gutenberg offers a huge selection of public domain books in html, epub, kindle, and plain text format. 

Books in the public domain can also be found directly through the Kindle or Kobo stores. Both stores offer free apps for mobile devices and computers. 

LibriVox has an impressive collection of audiobooks of public domain books read by volunteers.

Misc. 

PulseIt features different young adult books every week that you can read online for free. 

If you enjoy reviewing, recommending, or blogging about books you might want to check out some sites offering review copies e-book copies of books. I personally use Netgalley. I’ve also heard good things about Edelweiss. 

Giveaways are another way to source free books, even if there is no guarantee of winning, what’s the harm in trying? Goodreads has a staggering number of book giveaways all the time, and there are always a few circulating in the Tumblr book community.

Kindle and Kobo also offer free or heavily discounted books often, so it is well worth checking them every so often to see if any of the free books catch your eye. 

These are the only completely free and legal ways to source books that I know of - feel free to add your own ideas. 

Go forth and read responsibly!

[thebooker-deactivated20160630]

This post is amazing!

[wisteriafic]

HA! New (to me) shirt at Mental Floss.

[wisteriafic]

Men: If Orange is the New Black is so good with representation, why are all the men horrible?

Women: They're not all horrible. Bennett's nice. What more do you want?

Men: But he's clueless and irresponsible! And that's just ONE guy! How can you give me ONE decent male character in a slew of diverse female characters and call THAT representation?

Women:

Women:

Women:

Women:

Women:

Women:

Women: ...must be tough.