REAPER MAN

If you are considering donating to organizations that support Gaza, I want to recommend this one.

The Gaza Soup Kitchen is an organization created by and for people of Gaza. Unlike international aid organizations, who are subject to quotas and barricaded from entering Gaza, the Gaza Soup Kitchen supports Gazans in producing their own food.

They feed people in their community, so people don't have to trek to the American and Israeli-supported food sites, where soldiers are patrolling (and often shoot civilians who are just trying to access food).

They also organize education for children in Gaza. Their work goes beyond just the short-term goal of feeding Gazans now: by educating children, they're also laying the foundations for rebuilding the Gaza of the future.

This seems like a good way to have the money you donate go as far as possible, and do as much good as possible—compared to international organizations that are barred from entering Gaza, and especially compared to organizations backed by the American and Israeli governments.

You're holding an actual child to higher standards than you hold yourself, but it's the child that should be removed from public and community spaces. For your comfort.

and those two moms eventually broke up while still sharing custody of her

and eventually both moms found new partners who also helped with parenting so she technically had 4 moms at one point

and i've known this for a while and it has meant nothing to me, but recently she dyed/bleached her hair a platinum blonde and ever since then i've been greeting her in the morning with a cordial "heyyy what's goin on?"

I really just have to summarize Thomas's entire life:

He was in a committed relationship with a male swan named Henry for 18-24 years before a female swan named Henrietta showed up and mated with Henry.

Thomas was initially jealous of the pair and attacked them, breaking 2 of the 5 eggs Henrietta had laid. However, once the remaining eggs hatched, Thomas warmed up to them and helped raise them.

Henry couldn't fly because of an injured wing, so Thomas taught the cygnets how to fly.

When they needed to reduce the goose population in the pond where Thomas and the swans lived, they dyed Thomas's feathers red so he wouldn't be separated from Henry.

Henry, Henrietta, and Thomas remained in their happy throuple for years and raised 68 cygnets before Henry died in 2009. After Henry's death, Henrietta found another swan and flew away, leaving Thomas alone.

Thomas finally met and mated with a female goose in 2011 and had his own babies. However, another goose named George stole them and raised them himself.

As Thomas grew elderly and blind, he was relocated to a wildlife center where he raised orphaned cygnets.

His caretaker at the center described him as "pretty high maintenance."

Thomas died in 2018 at the age of around 40. He had a funeral that included a small coffin and a procession that was led by a bagpiper. He was buried under the stone where Henry was buried, the two finally reunited in death.