Writing Across Universes

BY ERIN ENTRADA KELLY

Years ago, I was a young journalist sitting in Ernest Gaines’ living room. He had just been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. His Lafayette home was well-organized, tidy, and succinct. So was Mr. Gaines. The first thing he said was “you’re late.”

Despite our rocky start, I sat across from him with young writerly fascination. This man—son of sharecroppers, Stanford fellow, Nobel Prize nominee—had written A Gathering of Old Men, Lesson Before Dying, and now he sat before me, a wide-eyed, somewhat naïve journalist who had a stack of unfinished novels in her closet and a million more in her head.

The J in Jason becoming an S is based on the model of Seán being the Irish version of John, and of Séamus being the Irish version of James. Séason would be pronounced Shay-son.

T is pronounced very softly in Irish, and when it’s followed by an E, it becomes a CH sound. The EA diphtong in Tead is pronounced as ‘ah’. So Tead would be pronounced as Chad, exactly the same.

As above, the EA is pronounced ‘ah’ and the combination GH is silent in Irish, so Hearraigh would be pronounced as Harry is in English, despite the initially alarming length.

Darach is already an Irish name, meaning ‘like an oak,’ and it’s usually Anglicised as Dara or Darragh (pronounced identically to each other), so suggesting Dairech = Derek is just extra funny.

I don’t think I’ll actually be able to scrub Ailfiagh out of my mind. It sounds too Irish, to the point that it’s replaced Alfie as the default spelling for me.

"I don't do full stops at stop signs lol" you are going to kill someone.

this being said! since my profession has me navigating denver, a place where basically everyone is trying to kill each other, i have some tips to keep yourself (relatively) safe from these kinds of roadborne pests:

plan your routes in advance. if you know you're going to a specific place at a specific time, and you know your area to some extent, you should take some extra time to route around denser areas. it might take longer, but emptier roads are both smoother and safer to drive.

leave earlier, drive slower. driving too slowly can make you a hazard, but if you keep your speed just a bit slower than everyone else, they will naturally want to pass you. as a side effect, this creates a big gap in front of you that gives you a lot of space to react to sudden threats.

maintain a larger following distance. most drivers leave less than a second between them and the car in front of them. this is bad, as human reaction times are generally shit. ideally you want to leave at least four seconds between you and the car in front of you at city speeds, with an extra 1-3 seconds at highway speed (faster speed = longer stopping distance = more space needed)

don't brake quickly in front of tailgaters. they won't have time to get off your ass. if something happens in front of you, you'll need to brake more slowly so they have time to respond (which can be done more easily if you follow the previous step). also, if you maintain your speed or gradually decelerate by a small amount, they'll eventually get tired of you and pass you.

have an escape option at all times. the idea is to keep a decent gap on all sides of you so that you can get out of harm's way in a pinch. don't drive right next to others, keep a good follow distance, and make sure there isn't another driver close to any of your corners - just because your sides are clear doesn't always mean you have space to move, as someone riding one of your corners can make it harder to move laterally.

avoid center lanes when possible. on roads with more than two lanes, it's easy to get boxed in by riding in one of the center lanes. if something happens in front of you, you might not have space to swerve, and if you break down, it's a lot harder to get off the road.

be aware of everything around you. a common mistake i see is that people focus straight ahead without much awareness of what's beside or behind them. your job is to be a radar dish, picking up everything around you with regular checks of your side windows and mirrors.

use.

your.

fucking.

turn.

signals.

The daily struggles of Ishgard

Based on this reply by Yoshi-P from the New Year questioning:

I always look at cookbooks for people who have no energy/time to do elaborate meal preparations, and roll my eyes. Like, you want me to stay on my feet for long enough to prepare 15 different ingredients from scratch, and use 5 different pots and pans, when I have chronic fatigue and no dishwasher?

These people seem to get it, though. It’s very simple in places. It’s basically the cookbook for people who think, ‘I’m really bored of those same five low-spoons meals I eat, but I can’t think of anything else to cook that won’t exhaust me’. And it’s free!