Otter's Rock

Which makes me think about Josh and Toby in The West Wing and the ways that Josh probably experienced antisemitism in ways that were almost cloaked/hidden/a subtle build up that you don’t always even see until you look back.

(I know, I absolutely know he got so so many threats actually. There are actually from memory not that many Jewish people even in Democratic Administrations and also like, I’m speaking as a Mizrahi Jewish Woman (when we were expelled from our homeland my family went to Persia and Syria) but absolutely Not Considered White. Maybe passing/maybe not but the shooters absolutely would not. The pervasive antisemitism from all sides).

So, we get a bit of last-minute wedding prep:

I love that people mostly just wear their uniforms and normal hairstyles, not civilian clothes (both ponytails and elaborate coiffures are entirely normal on the TOS Enterprise!). The vibe is that this is a special but not exceptional event. We'll see in a moment that even the bride just wears her uniform with a floofy head piece.

Janice: I should just be happy for my fellow crew members but my complex and intense feelings for the man 3 inches from me rn who has been very clear that ethically he cannot have a romance with anyone on this ship even though Starfleet has no regulations about it makes all this. a lot. Kirk: WEDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I was reading Grace Lee Whitney's memoir (which took some doing to acquire from Powell's, for reasons irrelevant to this post), and there's definitely a lot going on (understatement). But she has this section where she sums up her general sense/experience of the other actors, and it's kind of hilarious because she's like "oh, Leonard was so kind then and later" or "Jimmy Doohan was so funny" and then she's like ... "I didn't fuck Bill, okay? I was so strong. For my art."

The answer is no, we were never romantically involved with each other. And yet— I was always aware of a tremendous attraction between us that was never consummated. Part of that attraction has to do with the roles we played. [...O]ur job as actors was to become James Kirk and Janice Rand, to feel what they felt, to behave as they behaved, to immerse ourselves in their identities. I remember that Bill used to stand behind me in certain scenes, and he would hold me, and the back of my body would be absolutely on fire for him! That's lust, not love. I was very attracted to him. He was very charismatic, very sexy [...] He was so powerful—and I don't simply mean that he is physically powerful, but he also possesses a very strong personality. He was my leading man[...] I believe I resisted my attraction for Bill in part because I was always in character. Yeoman Rand wouldn't hop into bed with Captain Kirk, so neither would I. On some level, I'm sure I intuitively knew that if I became involved off-screen with Bill, it would ruin the on-screen chemistry between Kirk and Rand. I cared about the character too much to do that. I thought Captain Kirk was the most exciting character I had ever seen on the screen [...] I absolutely loved his bold, swashbuckling manner. His incredible energy was perfect for the larger-than-life captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise—and when nuance was needed [...] Bill could always supply that as well... I remember him as being very sad and withdrawn during those early weeks of shooting. His father was dying at the time[...] The wonder of William Shatner is that, with so much going on in his off-screen life, he was so engaging and commanding onscreen.

SG1 as text posts part 1

John Sheppard is an asexual man who's never heard the word asexual and thinks he's supposed to like women but the inside of his mind is probably just like a game of Sudoku and a turkey sandwich. He legitimately thinks of Rodney as his bestie and would be perfectly happy just bickering beside him for the rest of his life.

This leads to all their interactions with women being--

Rodney: *in an anxiety falsetto* 'I love women ooh yes women are so sexy women just love those women,' his crush on Sam Carter not withstanding, I legitimately think he has a crush on her but also she's a twink so it's fine.

"He has promised he shall restrain himself on his visit to London and we shall not see him suffer such self-abuse as before."

(Three months later)

You're holding an actual child to higher standards than you hold yourself, but it's the child that should be removed from public and community spaces. For your comfort.

I live on the outskirts of a city -- technically within the city limits, but a somewhat suburban neighborhood (common in a lot of parts of my city). I have a grocery store a block from me. I cannot walk to it or home from it. There are no good sidewalks between me and it, either, and the roads all have slopes that would be dangerous for me if I took my scooter. Furthermore, even if I had flat, even sidewalks between me and it (which most parts of my city, even the downtown areas, don't have; it's a hilly place), the most often I could shop would be twice a week, and then only some weeks. I don't have the spoons to do it every day. It takes a lot longer than 15 minutes, and it is exhausting. And the basket on my scooter is not built to carry groceries home.

A "walkable city" does not mean "walking is the only option." It means that walking is a viable mode of transportation in that city. It means that walking is an option. It means a city designed in such a way that if you don't want to own a car, you don't have to. A "car free" city doesn't mean that nobody owns a car, it means that for most people it's not a requirement to live in that city.

In a walkable city, there are still a fuckton of cars. Amsterdam is one of the most walkable cities in the world, and there are a lot of cars. But the city is designed such that while you can get just about anywhere with a car, it's still safe and easy and convenient for most people to walk, bike, or take public transit. Lots of people don't own cars; lots of people do (and will continue to do so!) and use them to get around in the city.

- Jewish-coding and Black-coding ignored and erased e.g., character’s experiences are intentional allegory for Jewishness or Blackness, but people insist it’s about queerness instead.

- The desire to see Black and Jewish characters humbled. This is usually in retaliation for some perceived wrong due to a white character. Gets worse if said characters are successful in their fields, then it’s portrayed as “punching up”.

- Ethnic features being erased (skin lightened, curly hair straightened, slimmer noses ect).

- Discussions about antiblack/antisemitic tropes in fandom spaces dismissed because “real bigotry is more important” (“real bigotry” is then never discussed).

- When the main characters are Black/Jewish and yet the fandom won’t stop talking about that fucking white guy.

- Black/Jewish characters made out to be mean, usually depicted as bullying the poor white character (bonus if the “agonisers” are men).

The Star Wars fandom regarding Mace Windu and anakin

"How is claiming they drowned a Hilux possibly underselling it" GREAT question.

To start with a little disclaimer, Top Gear's Hilux did not start off, as in the video above, in pristine condition. It started off with nigh-on 300k kms (for you yankees, that's about 8.4 million Boeing 737 wingspans) and a condition to match.

And it's only once careless driving around town yielded zilch in given shits...

(look, I found a local newspaper picturing it being driven around!)

...that they decided to drown it. Now, the underselling part: if you told me that they drowned a pickup the first place my mind would go to would be "driving it through a river a bit too deep for it, perhaps as deep as its height, until it stalls and then tugging it back out. You will concede that's rather different from tying it down on the seashore with the second highest tide in the world...

...and leaving it there until it engulfs the whole truck...

...only for the ropes to snap...

...and for the truck to be lost to the tides for FIVE HOURS.

(and for those wondering, yes, just as promised, well within an hour and the mandatory limits of basic tools and no spare parts, up the mechanic made the thing fire and away the presenter drove it - I must imagine doing a number on his clothes in the process.)

Oh also I would have mentioned the caravan.

Or at least the wrecking ball.

But hey, at least the fire was mentioned.

Still, I feel it's criminal to leave out how they celebrated it surviving all it did: by parking it at the top of a 23 story building for all to see! :)

Wait NO-

Well, that was uncalled for. Given what it survived, it deserved to rest in a museum instead of being unceremoniously cleared out with the other chunks of public housing that buried it.

Or at least, given that buried it wasn't...

...to be tumbled down from the rubble utop which it sat...

...and be fueled up.

"be fueled up", pfft, what for?, I hear you say. And you are right.

Look at that thing, you say.

Let's be serious now, however pretty of a story it would be that's not a truck that will do anything remotely in the ballpark of firing up, let alone running.

And again, you are right.

The battery was disconnected.

Sorted that, tho

"You can't be serious." Oh darling I sure can! "Well the presenters can't then" no no, I assure you, it lived. Go see it for yourself! It's at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieau, England!

Everything in the dinosaur dimension runs on electricity because the fact that dinosaurs never went extinct there means there's no oil.

1.) Tim breaks up with Steph and is real cagey about the reason.

2.) Tim starts hanging out with a boy from an evil cult who shares a last name with several villains.

3.) Steph suddenly remembers a conversation where Tim tells her this exact same boy threatened to sell his organs.

4.) Steph goes over Tim's medical records and finds he's missing a spleen.

Do *I* think Bernard is evil? No, of course not. But I absolutely think Steph is perfectly set up for the most awkward misunderstanding of a lifetime.