It used to be People Put on names And a suit of clothes, And were known.
The unknown god Takes up his staff, Puts on his beard, His signs of power, And when so garbed can say, "And now you know me."
What raiment is mine, What tools, What adornments, That will make me known?
I know not.
Footnotes on this one are: conversations about names on bsky, the lecture I went to tonight on queer/trans experience in the American colonies, a passage quoted in Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods, and graydon's comments about how gender is the means of signaling what sort of improv one is doing....
AO3 Link | Strange Support (100 words) by Merfilly Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Green Arrow Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Dinah Lance & Shado Characters: Shado, Dinah Lance Additional Tags: Drabble, +Modern Age (1986-Present), Post-Crisis, [Green Arrow Vol. 2 - 1988-1998] Summary:
When the community forgot about her, her ex's other lover didn't.
Strange Support
Dinah knew she wasn't alone as soon as she stepped into her house, but the assassin there was quick to show she was not openly armed. In fact, Shado's eyes were filled with concern, and it was not for the sleeping child on the couch, but for Dinah herself.
"I thought, perhaps, you needed support."
Shado's words broke her reserves, letting Dinah weep. What even was her life that Oliver's one-night fling had come to give more of herself than any hero in the community?
Shado held her, eased her down on the end of the couch, and stayed close.
This poem came out of the March 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from zesty_pinto. It also fills the "Mountains" square in my 3-1-25 card for the Tolkien Bingo Fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony Barrette. It belongs to the Rutledge thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
Good news includes all the things which make us happy or otherwise feel good. It can be personal or public. We never know when something wonderful will happen, and when it does, most people want to share it with someone. It's disappointing when nobody is there to appreciate it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our joys and pat each other on the back.
What good news have you had recently? Are you anticipating any more? Have you found a cute picture or a video that makes you smile? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your life a little happier?
What the hell sort of question is that? Of course I'd pay up! I have money, pride, and my teeth, and of the three, I can least afford to lose the last. Wouldn't almost anybody submit to the shakedown? That's how protection rackets work, after all - everybody does the same math and comes to the same conclusion as I just did.
(Of course, the context was "I think this company was rude to me over the phone, therefore I decided to live without hot water and heating because I have my principles" so, you know, I guess we have different approaches to life?)
Finished Cakes and Ale, which is partly that early C20th litfic convention of a first-person narrator who just happens be around to hear a lot about the actual protags and the plot or at critical moments of same, but actually complicates it with Ashenden knowing that Rosie is not actually dead as everyone else supposes. Not sure the ending really worked.
I then, having got into an Edwardian/Georgian novelist rhythm, went 'ah! time for some Arnold Bennett! the one about the hotel', except I picked up The Grand Babylon Hotel (1902), which is 1900s thriller hijinx mode with European royalty shenanigans, false identities, etc etc (though I was wondering whether it might adapt into a screwball comedy movie?), and wasn't actually the one I'd read many years ago that I was thinking of.
Which was Imperial Palace (1930), which struck me as, although lacking the highspeed thriller plot element, remarkably like D Francis in its fascination for infrastructure (in this case, running a luxury hotel in London) and competence porn. The running-the-hotel bits and the trials posed for the new supervising housekeeper are, perhaps, at least these days, more interesting than the bits involving Hotel Manager and Rich Man's Daughter Gracie. To give her (and actually, Bennett as author) her due, she is not, whereas she would be in a lot of novels by his contemporaries, an unmitigated bitch (Aldous Huxley's Lucy Tantamount) or a tragic bitch (Michael Arlen's Iris Storm), she has some good points and was a competent racing driver, but she is still annoyingly entitled and egocentric.
I took a break from this because I suddenly had a whim to re-read Mary Renault, The King Must Die (1958) for the first time in absolute yonks. You know, Mary, the sexism and misogyny is not entirely just being Accurate for Period, is it, hmmmm? There is some great stuff in there, but.
On the go
Imperial Palace is very long, and still on the go.
Up next
I think I am up for some Agatha Christie, seriously.
NOTE: Mildly suggestive humor ahead - so get your kids to explain it if you have any trouble.
NOTE THE SECOND: I'M KIDDING. Clear the area of innocents!
***************
Valentines' day is a celebration of love, and of the people we love, and of the many acts of love that we all...
Oh, look, a ding-dong!
No, no, YOU rock MY world, baby. Mrowr.
I remember a psychology course back in college where they talked a lot about interpreting things like keys and swords and Owen Wilson' nose, but I have to confess I never thought much of it 'til I saw these:
Think it's an Everlast?
(No, I will never stop with the Men In Tights jokes. SORRY.)
Here's a tip: I'm pretty sure swords don't NEED that much of a point:
Or at least not one shaped like that, anyway.
And in case you're starting to feel like these cakes are all thrust and no parry:
Donut worry: My lips are sealed.
I'm pretty sure you won't need Freud's help to spot this classic slip-up:
Talk is cheap, dude. Lemme see your guitar.
You know the saying, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince?" I only ask because reasons.
"Hey, bebeh, wanna go back to my pad? It's kind of chilly in here."
(Not a word on the necklace. NOT A WORD.)
Of course, if you don't want to go for subtle, there's always the blatantly inappropriate approach:
The longer you think about what demographic this cake was made for, the more uncomfortable it gets. (To say nothing of the fact that Barbie has no lower body, and her hair is getting in the icing. Ick.)
Well, whichever option you choose, I sincerely hope that you and your loved ones:
And hey, I mean that - from the bottom of my heart.
Thanks to Mindy B., Kelly G., Jeanne T., Jennifer R., Erica L., Dion H., Katie G., & Chris P. for putting the "wow" in "bow chikka WOW WOW."
******
P.S. I was trying to find a Valentines' gift for a guitar lover, but this works for any occasion if they also like Star Wars and puns:
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