rosemary and time

King Ozymandias

rendered in stone with a

strident decree.

Says our dear traveller

(unsentimentally)

"All that remains is his

1) says situation is terrible, disgraceful, prior administrations were grossly negligent to let it get this bad

2) says he has a plan to fix it better than it's ever been fixed before and for much less money

3) charges in blindly, does not wait for permits or Congressional approval, fires any experts telling him to slow down and wait

4) green sludge. gas prices through the roof. inflation out of control. a war that isn't a war but sure looks like a war and smells like a war and has no end. parasites in our produce. flu outbreaks in the army. screwworm. maternal mortality. unemployment. skyrocketing health care premiums. dead ducklings. dead kids.

5) announce this is actually way more complicated than anybody could ever possibly have guessed and nobody knew

6) blame democrats. holler sabotage.

7) leave much richer than he was to begin with.

Algaegate is important because that cycle played out very quickly, very visibly, and very comically. We're wired as humans to see patterns, but those patterns can be hard to clock when they show up over months or years in contexts that are too painful or stressful to watch closely. But this happened SO FAST and so front-and-center that a whole bunch of people have just been exposed to this pattern who never clocked it before, this pattern that is playing out over every national and international stage with him and his cronies at the center of it.

"Oh him? That my emotional support hobbit."

"Uh huh. And what he got?"

"That's my hobbit's emotional support hobbit."

"And I suppose those two are also emotional support hobbits as well?"

"No, of course not. Those two are my emotional distress hobbits."

".....?"

"what do YOU guys call it"

"isn't it [insert time here] over there????"

"GO THE FUCK TO BED"

"good morning" (it's 6pm in your timezone)

"do you have/say [thing] over there"

--biannual season handoff with the southern hemisphere homies

--international cuss words

--"oh you're sick? you need <medicine>." [frantic googling to find out what benedryl is called in Switzerland and whether you can get it OTC]

The púca (or pooka, or puck - there are many variants on their name, depending on who is telling the story) is a mischievous creature of Irish and English folklore, a shapeshifter who may appear as any number of creatures, most often a wild colt. Naughty children are warned against eating overripe blackberries because they may have been entered by the púca. If you accept a ride from the púca, you may expect a wild, white-knuckle gallop and that will likely end quite abruptly when you are thrown from their back. Spurs may protect you, but if you don't have any, don't worry too much. These are creatures of mischief rather than of malice, and they are often protective or helpful spirits.