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OH MY GOOOOOOOOOD

The quilt!!! The Good Luck quilt !!!! just there on instagram with 60 likes on it!!!!!!!!! oh man i was looking SO HARD. i've started to do a guide to all the good luck symbols that were on it but my quest is basically over!! The edges of it aren't clear, but this is basically everything we DON'T see in the film! oh man, I feel lightheaded.

Blue dots: cities that come to mind if I'm trying to name a Midwestern city to explain the Midwest to someone

Green dots: other cities among the 120 most populous cities in the US which feel probably Midwestern to me

Orange shaded region: Midwest core

Purple shaded region: yeah sure probably Midwestern but it kind of depends on context (Food? Demographics? Religion? Politics? Music? Natural environment/climate?)

Black dotted line: approximate "upper Midwest" versus "lower Midwest" boundary

Red line: approximate "the South" boundary- yes I guess I believe the South and the Midwest aren't mutually exclusive

"the Midwest is flat"

"the Midwest is not diverse"

"the Midwest was a hub for the Great Migration"

"the Midwest is union states that were not the original colonies or the far west"

"the Midwest has a significant mainline protestant population" (pink ABCUSA, orange ELCA, and green UMC on this map)

"the Midwest is farmland"

"the Midwest has wet summers and dry winters"

"people in the Midwest are of primarily German, Scandinavian, and Native American ancestry"

There are lots of these kinds of things that aren't occurring to me at the moment. But just for fun let's combine these ones into a map! There's a transparent purple layer for each of the previous maps, and a black outline for places that fall into at least 5 of the 8 regions.

I really just have to summarize Thomas's entire life:

He was in a committed relationship with a male swan named Henry for 18-24 years before a female swan named Henrietta showed up and mated with Henry.

Thomas was initially jealous of the pair and attacked them, breaking 2 of the 5 eggs Henrietta had laid. However, once the remaining eggs hatched, Thomas warmed up to them and helped raise them.

Henry couldn't fly because of an injured wing, so Thomas taught the cygnets how to fly.

When they needed to reduce the goose population in the pond where Thomas and the swans lived, they dyed Thomas's feathers red so he wouldn't be separated from Henry.

Henry, Henrietta, and Thomas remained in their happy throuple for years and raised 68 cygnets before Henry died in 2009. After Henry's death, Henrietta found another swan and flew away, leaving Thomas alone.

Thomas finally met and mated with a female goose in 2011 and had his own babies. However, another goose named George stole them and raised them himself.

As Thomas grew elderly and blind, he was relocated to a wildlife center where he raised orphaned cygnets.

His caretaker at the center described him as "pretty high maintenance."

Thomas died in 2018 at the age of around 40. He had a funeral that included a small coffin and a procession that was led by a bagpiper. He was buried under the stone where Henry was buried, the two finally reunited in death.

They're incredibly invasive, too- you know how some places in the US complain of massive "ladybug swarms" in their windows in the summer? Well those are usually actually Lady Beetles! :D

Though the can look quite similar, ladybugs have no "M" marking, have fewer spots, are usually symmetrical, and don't invade houses- they are predatory and mostly just eat aphids.

And on top of being rather smelly and invading houses, Lady Beetles are very agressive and can bite!

Selling my wares at the Cymera book festival!

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.