Desperate Measures

the earliest known version of the story is "the Adventure of the German Student," (1824) which is set in the 1780s and involves a young man who happens to meet a beautiful Frenchwoman with a diamond choker around her neck. he takes her to his lodgings where they make love, but in the morning he finds her dead in his bed when he awakens- dead, and seemingly dead for over a day. he runs for help, and the men who respond exclaim that she's a noblewoman who was guillotined early the day before. insert choker removal and expected result here

the most common version currently circulating, published in the children's book In A Dark, Dark Room (1984) adds the green ribbon most English-speaking adults are now familiar with...but involves the girl/woman growing old happily with her husband and finally giving him PERMISSION to remove the ribbon as she's dying

based on the notes, it looks like the idea of someone hounding the woman to remove the ribbon- and similar symbolism to OP's post -comes from "the Husband Stitch" (2014) a feminist short story that uses folktale and urban legend imagery

between friends has become a

cultural icon.

Check this out.

It is, by any metric, a small country masquerading as a city.

It governs more lives and more wealth than most nations. If democratic socialism — housing reform, public banking, equitable taxation — functions here, it obliterates the myth that such governance can’t work at scale. The fear isn’t ideological. It’s empirical. Because if Mamdani can keep the lights on, reduce homelessness, and maintain economic growth without catering to Wall Street, then the capitalist gospel collapses under its own dead weight.

What terrifies the establishment isn’t failure. It’s feasibility.

If it works in New York, there’s no reason it can’t work in Nebraska. If it works in Queens, it can work in Kansas City. And once proof exists, belief becomes irrelevant. The ship of democracy, fully refitted, will keep sailing — and no one can claim it isn’t American."

Link to the pdf of the tool kit

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.