I'm Talking To The Walls

as a child i assumed that martha’s vineyard was a fancy private vineyard owned by martha stewart and the reason rich people vacationed there was because they were friends with martha

#'this is present in the text' is often a good first step #but those second and third ones (naming it; describing its function) are vital (via @elucubrare)

I love getting unaccompanied minors (kids flying alone) who so clearly just. Don't want to be here lol. Sometimes I get to know a little of their story, like their parents are divorced, or a family member died and they're heading to the funeral, but usually they just don't want to talk about it and that's fine. But I always treat the flight like it's a challenge to make them smile. I offer them snacks and soda but that's never enough, that's whatever, they could get those from an airport vending machine. Chump change. So then I tell the worst jokes. Just the most embarrassing, kindergarten teacher, annoying dad jokes you can think of. And those always get a groan, or a "Seriously??" And that's my in! Now I can say "Why, what's your idea of a good joke? No, come on hotshot, make your best joke, let's see it." And they hem and they haw but of course they eventually tell me their very best joke because kids are little competitive comedy goldmines. And it's always super funny, so I laugh, and that's where they slip up. Because you know what you almost always do when your joke successfully makes someone laugh? You smile. And I'm like. Gotcha. Rookie move. Now you're going to end up having a good time in spite of yourself. I win.

Did this with an 11yo u.m. today and he said "What did the ghost say to the other ghost?" And I said "What?" "Nothing. Ghosts aren't real."

god i will never not be losing my mind over characters who are in dangerous, deadly situations every day and are still like “this is better. this is better than my past and it’s better because there are people who love me here.” 

genuinely I try very hard not to succumb to doomerism and selective nostalgia because humans have been complaining about the mind-destroying effects of That New Technology since the beginning of recorded history. but at risk of sounding like a humanities academic, I do think the drop off in engagement with long-form literature and (especially in the US/wider Anglophobe world) in enrollments in second language courses is deeply alarming

and at least in the US this is a heavily gendered phenomenon, and I think much about our current political moment can be tied to the fact that overwhelmingly American men (both young and not) are not reading and are not learning other languages

ancient greek word of the day: κακοθερής (kakotherēs), unfitted to endure summer heat

this literally means “bad at summer” pass it on

Reblog if you, too, are bad at summer

World Heritage Post

Kara never once had Krypto in a cape in Supergirl which means in Superman Clark not only made a dog-sized cape, but also managed to put it on that hellion

(to the tone of creep by radiohead) but i'm asleep. on mypillow

the ruler is hosting festivities in the capital while the nation collapses, and heretics have caused a schism in the catholic church. i love living in the middle ages.

we even have a The Plague

i think everyone in the whole world forgot that mystery doesn’t have to equal crime

sometimes it’s just like. what happent ?