Holy Mother Of Nuggets

To avoid more punishment, the child sits still and is quiet. But they have to actively remind themself constantly to sit still and be quiet.

The teacher sees the child sitting still and being quiet. The teacher treats this as the baseline.

Since the child is putting a lot of effort into sitting still and being quiet, doing so distracts from paying attention to what the teacher is teaching. The child then is punished for not paying attention.

In 2021, Swarovski (the company that makes the very sparkly crystals you see in certain jewelry, on figure-skaters' twinkliest outfits, on red carpet dresses), decided they didn't want the grubby fingers of small-time jewelers, clothing designers and costumers and crafters on their shiny beads and rhinestones anymore. They decided to limit their sales to "luxury" and couture creators, not girls who sell stuff on Etsy. The tenor of their press release on the subject was snide and insulting. Resellers (like your favorite bead shop) would no longer be allowed to carry their product; the average Jane on the street would not be able to purchase them. You could only get them if you had an authorized business agreement that bound you to very strict brand behavior. And those of us who still had good stock of the crystals would no longer be "permitted" to use the brand's name in our listings for sale.

Every bead shop and craft supply place and many, many small clothing makers--wedding shops, prom and dancing dress suppliers, the sort of salt of the Earth mom and pop time machines of shops that are the backbone of the field--scrambled to find something that could replace them. The last of the stock dwindled quickly, all of us grabbing what we could get while there was any chance of it, and then it was gone and we no longer had any access.

I was Big Pissed about it at the time. It was just so goddamn stuck-up, when wholesalers and indie jewelers had made them so much money, when some people I knew--when *I!*--had been brand-loyal for decades. But with no recourse, everyone pivoted fairly quickly, most of us to Preciosa Crystals. Those are Czech, quite sparkly, and considerably less expensive than Swarovski. The faceting method they use is different, but not worse; any differences are hardly noticeable when you're seeing them as a hundred pinpoints of light.

Well, out of nowhere, Swarovski just dropped this: https://www.harmanbeads.com/swarovski-brand-policy-update

"Effective June 1, 2026, Swarovski updated the distribution and brand usage policies introduced in 2021. Businesses may now purchase Swarovski Crystals without signing a Brand Control Agreement, and Authorized Distribution Partners may once again sell Swarovski Crystals to resellers, including bead stores and online retailers. Businesses may also use the Swarovski brand name when following Swarovski’s Proper Use Guidelines. Designers, manufacturers, artists, brands, retailers, and resellers are now eligible to purchase Swarovski Crystals through authorized distribution channels."

They want us back. A lot of the companies who could have kept a brand relationship with them also have swapped to Preciosa, over the last half-decade, in solidarity with indie creators and out of a sour awareness that it could be them, next. And it doesn't hurt that Preciosa was able to expand their line quite a bit now that everyone who wanted sparkle had no choice but to go to them.

And I'm not seeing nearly anyone who intends to return. The feeling is, "Y'all told us to fuck off! Off we fucked! And now, that's what you can do, too!" I'm seeing a lot of "How many of us did you stab in the back?" comments from the people whose money they're hoping to attract.

Texts From Superheroes

Who had late Victorian Scooby Doo on their 2024 bingo card? Hmm?

“Oh dear!”

“Nah, it’s fine, we like it. it just makes the cowboys anxious.”

“Oh…?”

“They jump like stung cats faced with a pickle.”

“Is that…?”

“But personally I fuckin love it. Adds a classy edge, a what you call a nuance to the premise of my gaming establishment. I’m just telling you about the cowboys for, you know, your research programme or whatever. Now, I don’t know what chemical engineering really is, but I reckon you oughta include more cowboy representation in yer future iterations. See if you can engineer up some kinda ball that explodes with a gentle kinda noise maybe - like a ‘ping.’ Maybe like a ‘tinkle-tinkle-tinkle.’ Gentler, ya see? Easier on the post-traumatic nervous system.”

“A … tinkle-tinkle?”

“I’m not a fancy man a’science. Maybe a rewarding ba-dink. More ✨, less 💥, you see what I mean.”

“Er… okay.”

“So can ya go ahead and send a dozen boxes more?”

“Sorry?”

“On’account’a the constant fuckin attrition of billiard balls? They’re explodin’ every ten hits, we’re running low on ‘em, you can see that, right?”

“You want more? You want more! Okay! Okay.”

“Yeah - oh - hang on. You’ll want to get some of that there FRAGILE tape all over the boxes. Lots of it. For fair warning.”

“Oh - good point.”

“What?! How do you know?!”

“Well, boss, there’s pictures. Or, well, there were.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ah sorry boss, thought you knew. You take a picture of somebody’s bones when they got Exploding Bones Disease, the pictures, they explode.”

“That’s - that be right.”

“Prim, I’m not sure-“

“I need the pen! The pen that remembers everything!”

“Prim, please, the fire warden said-“

“Did I fucking stutter, Ethel? do you think all of this fucking about with victory gardens and blackout paper and casual lesbianism actually kills Nazis?”

“Wait, how do you think the porn is going to?”

unfortunately, Damian is also the youngest brother and is, in essence, a little fucking shit. so a couple months later when Red Robin has to meet up with Batman, Nightwing, and Robin to discuss the ring of illegal organ harvesters that Robin and Nightwing have just infiltrated, Damian hands over a gift bag with a clearly bitten-back grin and falsely-innocent expression.

Tim opens the back and genuinely bluescreens.

“I- I uh,” Damian chokes back a giggle. “I heard you needed one of these.”

Tim’s face is so uncomprehending that Dick snatches the bag away and moves to open it, complaining about how Damian had made them stop at a craft store on the way over to buy the bag and he still doesn’t fucking know why-

he looks in the bag and screams.

“WHY DID YOU TAKE- WHAT EVEN IS THAT?”

Tim stares forward blankly, in pure awe at the levels of comedy his little brother is bringing to the table. “It’s a spleen. He’s given me a spleen.”

Damian collapses into a fit of laughter to the point of crying while Dick, horrified, tries not to throw up over the mangled rotting organ Damian had stolen from the illegal-transplant ring. he doesn’t stop laughing for the better part of an hour and Bruce has to talk to Damian about the dangers of messing with case evidence, especially when that evidence is actual human remains.

* you have power

* you're safe

You get to play at having power over someone else. This is your dominance sorts of things, your sadisms, etc.

You get to play safely. You can play with scary things while knowing there's safewords and a dom/top who loves you.