RoyalGala

The best ones have advice on decor, how to select high-quality furniture, childrearing, fashion, etc--from a contemporary perspective, and the things the authors feel the need to clarify vs the wild shit that will just casually mention like it's something everyone knows and agrees on is REALLY revealing of the culture and how it's shifted.

And while a lot of the advice is WILDLY bigoted or just outright funny, you'd be surprised how much of it is...just genuinely timeless, and shockingly compassionate.

They ALSO, as a writer, have INVALUABLE resources--because, again, they're talking about things that are so MUNDANE that a lot of the time nobody really sat down to formally document what normal, everyday people thought or cared about--because that's boring! But a book written to provide advice and information to, say, a young woman who's never run her own home before? You can fully expect an entire chapter dedicated to The Types Of Oven, and which features are useful and worth spending money on, and which features are a huge hassle to clean and a waste of space, and what to spend that money on instead.

And like. As a writer who frequently works in the 1800s? Fuck inflation calculators, this is the kind of thing I need. This is absolutely priceless.

Now that being said.

My current favorite 'etiquette guide' in the world is actually like....70% purely practical advice, written by a gentleman the groupchat has affectionately dubbed History's Most Autistic Man In The World, and thank god they didn't have Aderall back then

Because the AuDHD is strong in this one and as a result, in addition to the deeply practical and useful everyday reference points, we also have:

the only challenges that require multiple people are at the beginning and end - at the beginning to allow the players to bounce around there for a bit before they realize they need to go down, and also at the end to ensure that a runaway player has to wait for another to catch up

count the rice itself, of course, can only be played with one player, so that players never actually have to count rice (if you had to wait for a second player at the end, then whoever got closest would win) (this is ofc not accounting for hannah pilkes)

the middle rooms are great too, because they are easy to intentionally fail, and hard to win. the spot the difference rooms are especially good, because you think you understand what it is (spot the difference between the two halves of the room), and this is seemingly confirmed when you successfully loose, but once you come back to try to win, you realize you did not actually fully understand the game. the placement of these is important, too - only players who were intentionally trying to lose got to those rooms. any higher in the sequence, and they might have had a player trying to win reach the rooms first, and then they'd realize the twist

and also the decision to split the rooms up? 2 and 3 in a separate space from 4-8, so players would assume there are only 3 until someone loses enough, subtly hiding the majority of the game from them

amber gray's expressions just wow. she is so expressive and such a phenomenal actress

the way the fates appeared behind orpheus during wait for me

how every time during group numbers the camera focused on a certain person you could hear their vocals more clearly than everyone else

all of the fates

wait for me reprise in 4k with peak sound holy shit eva noblezada i love you so much

the cracking noises during wait for me when the walls opened up

the shots from above/below the stage

how during doubt comes in all the shots were primarily close ups of orpheus so it was hard to tell where eurydice was

one of the people in my theater shouting "NO" when orpheus turned around

literally so many more things i could talk about this proshot for ages

"People back then always married young it's natural!!!" Every single 1800s guide I've ever met casually mentions that, of course, you really shouldn't get married before you're at least 20, and waiting until 25 is usually better.

Or, like. Okay here's a long segment:

Just firmly going "it is crazy sexist to blame The Wife for overspending when thirty seconds of asking questions will immediately establish that her husband was outright lying to her about how much money they had. Talk to your wife like a normal person."

Or--okay, here. A section on being honest and not writing love letters in secret, because that's usually a good sign that there's something untoward going on....

....except that he then immediately acknowledges that sometimes, the reason you're hiding this from your parents is that your parents suck. That there are parents who frankly have not earned the right to approve or disapprove of your partner.

"Men and women being friends with each other is literally normal. Don't be a controlling freak."

"If you have to abuse a child to keep order in your classroom then you're a bad teacher."

Gold, Silver, and Bronze!🥇🥈🥉