I am so smart! S-M-R-T

Maura: Yes, perhaps they’re homophobic.

Jane: But we’re not gay, Maura.

Maura:

Jane:

For once I'm not actually doing a bit; those "any resemblance to real persons living or dead" disclaimers genuinely exist because of Rasputin.

could have taken this in the

fourteenth century.

In the episode 72 hours, we find out Rose may have contracted AIDs during an emergency gallbladder surgery.

Rose: Why me, Blanche? I'm tired of pretending I feel okay so you won't say, 'Take it easy', and I'm tired of you saying 'Take it easy' because you're afraid I'm going to fall apart. Dammit, why is this happening to me? I mean, this isn't supposed to happen to people like me. You must've gone to bed with hundreds of men. All I had was one innocent operation. Blanche: Hey, wait a minute! Are you saying this should be me and not you? Rose: No! No, I'm just saying that I am a good person. Hell, I'm a goody-two-shoes! Blanche: AIDS is not a bad person's disease, Rose, it is not God punishin' people for their sins!

In Isn't it romantic? we find out Dorothy's childhood best friend is a lesbian who recently lost her partner. She confesses she has feelings for Rose. Rose turns her down but makes it clear that she still wants to be friends even though she doesn't return those feelings.

Sophia: Jean is a nice person. She happens to like girls instead of guys. Some people like cats instead of dogs.

Jean: Rose, about last night. I should never have said anything. Rose: You only said what you were feeling. Jean: It's just that this last year has been so difficult for me. Pat was the person I planned to spend the rest of my life with. And when she died, I just felt so terribly alone. Empty. I thought I could never care for anyone again. Until I met you. I just got very confused. I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable. Rose: Well, I have to admit that I don't understand these kinds of feelings. But if I did understand, if I were, you know, like you, I'd be very flattered and proud that you thought of me that way.

Ebbtide's Revenge gives us Phil's funeral, and Sophia addressing him wearing women's clothes.

Rose: So what if he was different? It's okay that you loved him. Sophia: I did love him. He was my son, my little boy. But every time I saw him I wondered what I did, what I said, when was the day I did whatever I did to make him the way he was. Angela Petrillo: What he was Sophia, was a good man.

Sister of the Bride, where Blanche's brother Clayton brings his boyfriend to town, because they're planning on getting married.

Blanche: Oh, look, I can accept the fact that he's gay, but why does he have to slip a ring on this guy's finger so the whole world will know? Sophia: Why did you marry George? Blanche: We loved each other. We wanted to make a lifetime commitment. Wanted everybody to know. Sophia: That's what Doug and Clayton want, too. Everyone wants someone to grow old with. And shouldn't everyone have that chance?

it’s called a Hawser and is the thick cable or rope used for towing/mooring a ship

This is a line designed to hold in place a moving object that can be easily in excess of 10000 tons. AND THEY CAN BREAK FROM THAT TENSION ALONE.

You’ve heard of the term, “Going haywire,” right? Ever spared a thought to why that term exists?

See, time was there was a prototype automatic hay-baler. But this was in that magic period juuust before we really got into standardized sizes. So calibration of the machine was handled manually - a mix of guessing and learning from the results of guessing. If you’ve read Raising Steam by Sir Terry Pratchett you know that many people don’t get to learn from the results of their own guesses, due to being dead.

A poorly calibrated hay-baler had the mechanical strength to smush the hay into a tight bundle, wrap the wire around it, and tie that wire off to maintain the bale’s form. But the pressure of the over-packed hay was a constant outward force. Each bale made by an over-tight baler was potential energy in physical form. We have a word for “potential energy in physical form” and that word is “bomb.”

So sometimes, a man would toss a hay bale and it would land with a twang and the man who’d been reaching down to pick it up where it landed was dead.

the book is a sapphic vampire romance called she's my eternity (sequel to the girl who bit me)by valerie hunter. i'm including the synopsis here bc it does a better job of conveying basic plot than i can:

"Yasmine Sokolov has built a life most people would kill for. She’s the richest vampire on Earth, a professor with nearly unlimited research funding, and owner of a mansion across from Central Park. The only thing she hasn’t managed in a thousand years? A long-term girlfriend. After moving to New York City to help Sylvia and Aster adjust to unexpected parenthood, Yasmine is pushed back onto VampireMatch—where a dozen disappointing dates convince her that another thousand years alone might be her fate. That is, until she meets someone she absolutely cannot fall in love with: the devastatingly beautiful, and devastatingly human barista, Bella Dragomir. But as a string of vampiric killings begins spreading across New York City—killings that seem to draw closer and closer to Bella herself—Yasmine finds herself wondering if the truth is more complicated than she wants to believe. Especially when it comes to Bella."

completely aside from the amazing experience i had as a beta reader (which was incredible, just incidentally), i think the author has crafted a touching and impactful narrative that succeeds as a more straightforward romantic suspense novel, but that really, at its core is a story about trauma recovery and the healing power of queer love.

also, the leads are both researchers, so that allows for some really delightful and incredibly romantic fantasy science. i will never think about mitochondria the same way again. (oh! and also there are sea urchins!)

one of the things i appreciate about valerie's writing is that she is able to deliver a devastating gut punches, but they are always couched in humor or tenderness or absurdity or something to soften the blow.

i don't know how many of you (if any) are followers from way back when i actually wrote things and shared them on the internet, but if you liked my writing i think you will enjoy this book. valerie deals with heavy topics with kindness, compassion, and understanding, which comes through in the writing.