Eye of the Storm

I'm on a bit of a Greek mythology kick in my reading, so! Today You Learned about Busiris!

So in Greek mythology, there was this king, in Egypt, named Busiris. Egypt went through a drought, so he asked for advice, and a foreign priest told him that what needed to be done was to sacrifice a foreigner to the gods every year. Busiris started by killing the priest. He went about this business of killing foreigners for a while until.... he tried it on the demigod hero Heracles, who was passing through in between his Labors.

It, uh, didn't go so well for Busiris, as this statue in Vienna shows.

Now, what I find interesting is that it's unclear if anyone in ancient Greece ever actually believed in this guy? I don't know, I feel as if people characterize the ancient Greek pagans as very credulous on these myths, but they had doubts. Wikipedia claims that the earliest version of the story was explicitly a satire, though I don't know how reliable Wikipedia is on that front, as the Theoi page linked above doesn't have that source, and it tends to have all of the ancient quotations imaginable.

It does however, have an excerpt of Herodotus, who is often assumed to be gullible, but he has his own doubts. Herodotus points out that for the most part, the Egyptians don't do a lot of animal sacrifice, outside of special cases; why then, would they ever even consider sacrificing humans? He chalks it up to Greeks being ignorant of Egyptian culture.

There is also a location in Egypt called 'Busiris', and one person theorized that the Greek legend was a warning against that one town's lack of hospitality. Or something.

I don't know. I think it's weird! It's a story about Heracles that many of the ancient Greeks openly admitted might not be true! Our most famous Greek historian straight-up says he thinks it's nonsense. And that's strange.

Uh.... I'm going to be real with you, Hatted BIONICLE Friendo, I do not. I mean, I know that the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865 by General Granger is the reason for Juneteenth, the holiday. Which, given Juneteenth was less than a week ago, I imagine probably you already know.

And I know that it's named after Bernardo del Galvez, the Viceroy of New Spain? Governor of Spanish Louisiana before that?

Also, the dude was a snazzy dresser:

I need an outfit like that (but not now because it's friggin hot this summer).

Today You Learned about Galvez, I guess? Look, a thing that I think is often left out of our history lessons, or forgotten (because I know Schoolhouse Rock mentions it) is that Spain also helped in our fight for independence from the British during the American Revolution. And one of the leading figures of that was Bernado de Galvez.

Because France was not the only European country with an interest in punching Britain in the face! Because they had established colonies on the continent, Galvez could help by selling supplies that didn't worry about British blockades. He also led attacks on British-held garrisons in Spanish territory, and helped free up the Caribbean by fighting the British there.

In 1783, Continental Congress had his picture put up in their room. Weird, but okay.

Though to be fair, it's not like he was doing all this out of the goodness of his heart/just to beat England. He was one of the drafters of the Treaty of Paris after the war, and it specified that Florida would go back to being Spanish territory. And again, he went on to become Viceroy of New Spain--though if you accomplish that much for your country's interest, I suppose one could argue he earned the title.

Well, that, and his snazzy outfits.

It's no wonder they named a city after him in Texas.

Also! The statue of Galvez in DC? Was a gift from the Spanish monarchy, put there in 1976, to celebrate the 200th birthday of the United States.

Saint Juliana Falconieri

1270-1341

Feast Day: June 19

Patronage: bodily ills, sick people, chronic illness

Saint Juliana Falconieri was born into a noble Florentine family. Her father died when she was young and she was raised by her mother and Uncle Alexis, who was one of the founders of the Servites. At 15, she became a Servite Tertiary, dedicating her life to prayer, penance, and caring for the sick and those in need. Eventually, other women joined her and she founded the Servite Tertiary Sisters. When she was dying, she couldn’t receive the Eucharist in her mouth so the priest laid the host on her breast, and then it disappeared then she died.

https://youtube.com/shorts/v8-8WsYj9FU

i grew up here and i can safely say that those rednecks everyone talks about do have a culture. it’s just not one anyone seems to accept the existence of.

this stereotype literally just drives me insane because i’ve met people from other countries who tell me the same thing because they heard it online.

my entire childhood literally did allow me to develop and have roots in communities—once again; just not ones you care to consider. there are also. many people from other countries who have moved here and continue to practice their culture, so i’m unsure why we pretend like the midwest is like that episode of spongebob where he was insanely normal.

i was very much encouraged to explore the woods and i did develop community at school with other girls who didn’t live in the more populated area and instead spent their time building stick structures and watching their dads practice for hunting season.

unfortunately for you all there is actually a culture in the country but you all just brush it off as hillbilly living and assume we’re all white trash.

family roots, work ethic passed down, hard work, doing the rough jobs, prioritizing family over all else—that is the culture. i’d say my momma’s home cooking is culture, and so is my dad’s—and no, they don’t just season with salt (my dad makes the best steak hands down and any ruins any restaurant steak for you). and that’s not even mentioning the hunting and other things that people ignore as culture because they just have to believe that all white people are a boring conglomerate.

there are many members of my family who did odd jobs to support family—it’s honest work, especially farming, which is very common in the countryside. trucking, military, wildlife, construction, whatever these people had to do to make ends meet.

poorer families grew their own crop in small amounts in order to feed their children. some had to give up on farming because the milk from their cows, despite it being quality, was no longer being picked up because the location was too remote.

if that strong loyalty and commitment is not culture then i don’t know what you think it is.

saying “ope” when bumping into someone or saying wash as “worsh”—just fun little quirks that i love about where i grew up.

although i didn’t have a lot of friends in school i knew someone always had my back.

GODSLAVE IS BACK ⚡️⚡️ NEW PAGE⚡️⚡️

Today: Heru VS Edith part 2!

GODSLAVE is about a girl tricked into working for an Egyptian God, ending up in the middle of a Pantheon Family Feud! 

Edith fights monsters and gods in the modern day, and struggles to learn about who she’s really working for.

06/19/2026

Diplomatic Immunity.

Our heroes feel like the best part of us, and stories feel perfect and powerful. Because here, they are.

Venerable Matt Talbot

1856-1925

Feast Day: June 19

Patronage: Alcoholism, Sobriety

Venerable Matt Talbot, a Secular Franciscan, was born in Dublin, Ireland to a poor family. After little education, he obtained work for liquor merchants as a teen and started drinking excessively for 15 years. Then at 28, he took the “pledge” to stop drinking and kept it, by daily Mass, spiritual reading, hard work and penance until he died in 1925. He would have been unknown if it were not for the penitential chains found on his body.