...So Get This...

Wife: GETMO? Husband: (after a moment, with a sigh) Yeah, GETMO. Me: GETMO? Wife and husband, in perfect unison: Good Enough To Move On

Vietnam War (1955-1975): An estimated 2 to 3 million Vietnamese, mostly civilians, were killed.

Korean War (1950-1953): Approximately 2.5 million Korean civilians were killed (in both North and South Korea), and most North Korean cities were completely destroyed.

Philippine-American War (1899-1902): More than 200,000 Filipino civilians were killed; some estimates put the number at one million due to famine and war-related diseases.

In addition to Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The death toll is estimated at around 140,000. Of these, approximately 70,000 to 80,000 died instantly in the first moments of the explosion due to the immense heat and pressure.

Bombing Tokyo: Operation Meetinghouse: In a single night (March 9-10, 1945), American incendiary raids killed approximately 100,000 Japanese civilians and turned Tokyo into an inferno—a number exceeding the direct casualties of the atomic bomb hiroshima.

Invasion of Iraq (2003): The invasion and the ensuing chaos and civil war led to the killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, with estimates ranging from 200,000 to more than one million according to different studies.

Israel's war on Gaza, supported and funded by America: More than 70,000 Gazans, mostly children and women, have fallen victim to this brutal aggression, genocide, and ethnic cleansing, with over 150,000 wounded and injured, and approximately 15,000 missing under the rubble. All of this is due to systematic bombing, starvation, and destruction.

(Actually spent a good few months thinking I was genetically unlucky and researching ancient family curses with my grandma.) 

So today I don’t know what I was hoping for - nothing, really?

(I mean, that part of me that’s still twelve was probably expecting this sweet old woman to have a set of glitter stickers in her purse and just go ‘You know what, you’re right - I’ve been saving this one for you all these years, here you go’ but I’m a solidly rational person and I know that’s stupid.)

No, I thought we’d just laugh and it would be a good shared memory and that would be it. Instead, my teacher got flustered and a bit embarrassed and explained the game was rigged. It was never about learning French at all. She’d just noticed some kids couldn’t afford even basic stationery, so she’d buy a few half-fancy items every month with her own money just for them. She didn’t want them to feel different or left out. And obviously the way she used to walk around in the classroom, looking over our shoulders - it wasn’t to prevent cheating. It was because she was cheating herself, wanting to see which number a particular child needed to get a Minnie Mouse pencil case.

Guys - the world is fucked up, but so many people out there are just good and kind and humbly heroic it honestly gives me hope. 

“ ..we had to climb over the bob wire!”

“Dude, did you just say ‘bob wire’?”

“Yea man, that spiky shit!”

“You actually think it’s called bob wire? Like fucking Robert wire? You think it’s called Robert wire?”

“Well what the hell do you think it’s called?”

“It’s BARB wire you idiot! Like Barbara wire!”

*the third guy* “Oh my god. You guys. BARBED wire. Because the wire has barbs, it is BARBED.”

“Oohhhhh!”

"group meowing session starts in 10" - staff of Inkigayo to idols, probably