Is it Symbolism?

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

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.

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.

For one, Zuko and Katara JUST made up and started being friends, best friends even, and Zuko could be trying to be nonchalant about wanting to sit next to her (cute). For two, it seems like Zuko could be oblivious to Aang's crush on Katara because he's still new to the group and legitimately doesn't know what the big deal is.

And on a deeper level, he doesn't just not see that Aang has a one-sided crush, he doesn't see any kind of chemistry or tension between them because it literally doesn't exist. He's oblivious to it because it is not there, textually. He has grown closer to Katara and understands the real her on a deeper level than any other character in the gaang and he has no inclination that she's interested in Aang because she never shows any.

Hell you could even interpret this as Zuko being a girl's boy and intentionally shielding his friend from the obsessed pushy kid she's trying to avoid the advances of, supported by the fact that later on she tries rejecting his pushy entitled bullshit and he assaults her.

Obsessed by the Ursula Leguin's Earthsea saga at the moment.... Ged and his boat have been on my mind ⋆｡ﾟ🌊｡

lemme put it this way; european longswords and european cannons are siblings. they emerged at basically the same time in the early 1300s, and when the longsword was at its peak use in the mid-1400s, the musket was beginning to proliferate.

likewise, the 'modern' style of katana only started being made in the century leading up to the introduction of muskets to Japan; in fact, the reason the katana became The Samurai Sword was because it was a small practical blade you could wear while you carried a gun.

happy pride month to chlodine specifically