Everything is Happening All the Time

anywayyy - people love to go “you’re saying an R but you don’t realise!” sorryyy, there is objectively no r sound in “no” when said australianly. what’s actually happening is australians are saying “nao” [nəʉ], the vowel is moving from a wideish neutral position [ə], into a closed position [ʉ]. for an [ɹ] to be made, the tongue has to move towards the top of the mouth, which just doesn’t happen, it goes to the bottom after [n] and stops moving.

soooo you’re not crazy, they are actually saying “drawring” 😀. it happens in “law and order” too (which is slightly easier to explain the mechanics of so i’m doing that, but it’s the same thing)

so in aus english the phrase is phonetically [lo:ɹndo:də] but if you say “law” and “and order” seperatly, theres no [ɹ]. tldr the tongue is in a low anterior position with the tongue sort of bunched up at the back for [o:], and as it moves diagonally into position for [n] it naturally passes through the location of where [ɹ] is verbalised, while also retaining the tongue posture of [o:], which is similar to [ɹ]. and in normal speech your vocal chords won’t switch off for something so small unless it’s very important, so the phantom r gets verbalised

"Kill your darlings" means "if something is holding you back, get rid of it, even if it sounds pretty."

That's it! That's all it means! It means if you're stuck and stalled out on your story and you could fix the whole block by removing something but you're avoiding removing that thing because it's good, you remove that thing. That's the darling.

It does NOT mean

That you have to get rid of your self-indulgent writing

That you should delete something just because you like it (?wtf?)

That you need to kill off characters (??? what)

That you have to pare your story down to the absolute bare bones

That you have to delete anything whatsoever if you don't want to

The POINT is that you STOP FEELING GUILTY for throwing out good writing that isn't SERVING THE STORY.

The POINT is that you don't get so HUNG UP on the details that you lose sight of the BIG PICTURE.

recycle your darlings

The Nepal Tourism Board has issued emergency contact numbers for assistance: 1234 (toll-free), 1144 (hotline) and Tourist Police at 9851289445.

The Nepali Prime Minister's Disaster Relief fund has also been set up to accept direct transfers but I can't find the details yet.

In 2020 I worked a job collecting medical record for insurance companies. It was Covid and there were many, many medical offices that were grieving and angry. It wasn't a fun job most of the time.

But one day I called a hospital in Tennessee. I was supposed to collect records for a NICU patient and their mama. I got to records and the woman in charge of records said there must be a mistake. They never worked with insurance with maternity or neonatal patients because of Dolly.

I asked what she meant and she told me, "Well, Miss Dolly has us send her the bills for any new mothers and their babies, especially if they spend time in the NICU. She never has anyone apply or anything, she just has us send her any bill for those families and she pays them, no matter how big."

I was stunned. I clarified, "Dolly? Dolly Parton?"

"Yes, ma'am! Dolly's been paying those bills since at least 1999 and so we just don't work with insurance here. It's why there's a mural of her in the maternity ward."

I cried harder that day than any other day during the height if the pandemic. For the first time that year it wasn't grief fueling my tears, it was a hope so deep that it hurt to contain it. When Dolly gave a million dollars for vaccine development I just nodded. Made sense to me. That's simply who she was. She saw a need and, if it was in her power, she met it. She loved humanity in a way that didn't require anything back. It was never a question of whether or not it was her responsibility, she just stepped forward and did what needed doing.

I loved Dolly Parton in the same way I loved Mr Rogers. Steve Irwin. Bob Ross. She shaped who I am with her kindness and she was a core part of my world for my entire life.