Author Archive
- In: 2020 Election | Politics | Polls | Quick Posts | Uncategorized
- 56 Comments
Good Day Widdershins!
As fun as Anne Lister was to read about and discuss, I thought I would move us along just a bit and perhaps someone else can take the weekend post.
As we all know, because we are smart, well-read, and politics is in our blood, the first pair of Democratic Primary debates are set for two nights later this month on the 26th and 27th at 9 pm Eastern, 8 pm Central. I’m not sure if they will be tape-delayed for the West Coast for shown at 6 pm Pacific Time.
There is some information on the debates that you can find here.
Also, Vox has a good article on the debates that you can find here.
So that brings us to the poll.
Open thread of course.
- In: Gay Issues | Open Thread | Pride | weekend widdershins
- 35 Comments
Anne Lister as portrayed by Suranne Jones
Good (late) Weekend Widdershins
As I put in the comments on mb’s post, yeah, shit was just happening today. And I’m still not far past the point of wanting to take a hammer to something (someone?). But let’s move on.
The picture at the top is of actress Suranne Jones portraying an actual historical figure Anne Lister. She portrays Lister in the HBO series Gentleman Jack.
One of the first things about the show that caught my attention was that Anne was from and speaks of Halifax. I thought “Nova Scotia?” because on the show she speaks of coal. Google, being a friend, I found out there was a Halifax England in West Yorkshire. Checking some maps I saw it was in the northeastern part of England. Halifax is northeast of Manchester to give another reference for it. And apparently yes at some point they mined coal there for a time.
The actual Anne Lister
As you can see above, Suranne does bear some resemblance to real Anne. Suranne said she added the top hat on her own.
Anne Lister was born in 1791 and died 1840. If you do the arithmetic you can see her adult period was in the 1820s or so. And what I have found fascinating was how “out” she was at the time.
Anne was a landowner and considered the family somewhat upper class. She had an ancestral home, Shibden Hall, built in around 1420. The Listers owned the estate for about three hundred years.
Although she surely didn’t describe herself as a lesbian, she lived that lifestyle. From the wiki:
Lister is described as having a “masculine appearance”; one of her lovers, Marianna Lawton (née Belcombe), was initially ashamed to be seen in public with her because her appearance was commented on. She dressed entirely in black and took part in many activities that were not perceived as the norm for gentlewomen, such as opening and owning a colliery. She was referred to as “Gentleman Jack” in some quarters. Lawton and Lister were lovers for several years, including a period during which Lawton was married and to which her husband became resigned.
On the HBO show, Anne meets and apparently falls in love with a local heiress Ann Walker.
Lister met the wealthy heiress Ann Walker in 1832. The women took communion together on Easter Sunday 1834 in Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York, and thereafter considered themselves married. The church has been described as “an icon for what is interpreted as the site of the first lesbian marriage to be held in Britain”, and the building now hosts a commemorative blue plaque. The couple lived together at Shibden Hall until Lister’s death in 1840.
Walker’s fortune was used to improve Shibden Hall and the property’s waterfall and lake. Lister renovated Shibden Hall quite significantly to her own design. In 1838, she added a Gothic tower(shown in the picture above) to the main house, to serve as her private library. She also had a tunnel dug under the building which allowed the staff to move about without disturbing her.
What was intriguing to me about Lister were the diaries or journals that she kept.
Throughout her life, she kept diaries that chronicled the details of her daily life, including her lesbian relationships, her financial concerns, her industrial activities, and her work improving Shibden Hall. Her diaries contain more than 4 million words and about a sixth of them — those concerning the intimate details of her romantic and sexual relationships — were written in code. The code, derived from a combination of algebra and Ancient Greek, was deciphered in the 1930s. Lister is often called “the first modern lesbian” for her clear self-knowledge and openly lesbian lifestyle.
So to wrap up Pride Week, brava to Anne Lister!
* * * *
Sorry about the little promos in there.
Open thread, of course.
Talk amongst yourselves
Posted on: May 31, 2019
Greetings Widdershins
This is short and very simple: Fredster is down for the count.
I had a package that came in. When I was picking it up from the doorstep I did the number on my back. Wasn’t a heavy package either. However, I don’t think the weight of the thing was an issue.
The good news is I have a script for generic Flexeril and Aleve. I’ve also got my trusty heating pad. The bad news is this just takes some time. So as I said, down for the count. So talk amongst yourselves.
It’s an open thread.
- In: lazy weekend | Odd News | Open Thread | Strange News
- 57 Comments
Florida Man (Homo floridiensis) h/t to Quixote!
Good weekend and Memorial Day weekend Widdershins
Instead of the usual and typical Memorial Day post I’ve done in the past I thought we might take a look at what’s going on with our friend down in the southernmost state.
Apparently he has become a genuine actual phenomenon as you can see here:
Florida Man is an Internet meme, popularized in 2013, in which the phrase “Florida Man” is taken from multiple unrelated news articles describing various actual people who hail from or live in Florida. Internet users typically submit links to news stories and articles about unusual or strange crimes or events occurring in Florida, particularly those where “Florida Man” is mentioned in the headline and has been wreaking havoc. The meme calls attention to Florida’s supposed notoriety for strange and unusual events. Miami New Times noted that freedom of information laws in Florida make it easier for journalists to obtain information about arrests from the police than in other states and that this is responsible for the large number of news articles.
[snip]
The meme has widely been seen as a confirmation of the association between Florida and bizarre or humorous activity, and it has been compared to the Darwin Awards.
* * * *
Okay this one was from last year but I still think it’s funny.
In news that could only have come from Florida, one Jacksonville gas station owner became “sick and tired” of locals using his microwave to warm their urine.
Those coming into the station to use the microwave were allegedly not customers, but instead, were suspected to have been en route to a nearby drug testing facility.
Indeed, a LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics are both within walking distance of the gas station. Although a spokesperson for Quest Diagnostics alleges that their facility does not engage in drug testing, LabCorp has remained silent on the matter.
He described one such incident in which the culprit was so desperate to microwave her urine that she starting “cussing” and replied: “Well, where is the sign that says you can’t use this for this kind of purpose?”
Oh those clever drug addicts!
* * *
On Nov. 6, when staff members at a Florida alligator farm entered a crocodile enclosure and saw two floating Croc shoes and discarded clothing, they were worried.
The employees at the Alligator Farm Zoological Park in St. Augustine, Fla. did not see a victim in the enclosure but did soon find a trail of blood that reached the top of the 20-foot enclosure. According to the Florida Times-Union, they alerted police right away.
Police solved the mystery rather quickly after arresting 23-year-old Brandon Hatfield nearby. Someone had already called 911 and reported a bloody man stripped down to his underwear crawling through a local woman’s yard. Surveillance video taken at the enclosure during the time of the break-in also revealed that Hatfield had entered the park at around 7:45 p.m. on Nov. 5 and spent four hours in the exhibit.
In the arrest report for Hatfield, an officer noted that Hatfield was sitting on the bank of the pool when a crocodile latched onto his foot. Hatfield then frantically began trying to fight off the crocodile and eventually managed to get away.
Before staff members at the Alligator Farm Zoological Park were even aware of the break-in, a neighbor in the area called police after they saw a suspicious man “doing a slow, creeping crawl” across her property. The crawling man turned out to be Hatfield, who’d apparently lost his clothes in his nighttime swim and was now nursing crocodile bite injuries.
“There’s a man with only gym shorts crawling,” the caller said. “He’s just crawling with his shorts halfway down his [butt] and no other clothes.”
Is it the heat or the stupidity or both?
* * *
This last one just leads you down a path to asking “WTF?”
A Florida man claimed ignorance when jail officials found syringes in his rectum during an early morning strip search.
Wesley Scott, 40, was arrested Friday in Pinellas County on an outstanding warrant charging him with drug possession, reports The Smoking Gun.
When Scott was searched at the jail, officers found three syringes inside his rectum.
However, Scott claimed he had found the syringes and they were not his, although he did not explain how they wound up in his buttocks.
Scott was charged with introducing contraband into a correctional facility and held on $5,000 bond.
* * * *
Okie doke Widdershins, enjoy your holiday weekend.
Open thread of course.
Lazy, no Angry Weekend~Shout it out
Posted on: May 19, 2019
- In: lazy weekend | Music | Open Thread | Patriarchy | Sexism | Women | Womens' Rights
- 31 Comments
Good afternoon Widdershins
I had a different post in mind for the weekend, but yeah, fuck that. And no, it wasn’t going to be a GoT thing.
No, after this week it’s time to let your musical voices come out in anger! Shout it out.
I’ll put up a few songs but I fully expect y’all to provide lots of them yourselves.
* * * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
AND LAST:
* * * *
Open thread of course but hope you’ll add some of your own in the comments.
Lazy Weekend~Taking a sick day
Posted on: May 11, 2019
Good weekend Widdershins
Fredster is not feeling well right now.
Perhaps it’s the 4th day of rain we’ve had…we’re under a flash flood warning…and it’s just plain yucky.
Is my body responding to the crappy weather? I dunno, but I’ve just felt “blah” the last few days, tummy or gut is off – somewhat nauseous and no appetite. I opened the cabinets and fridge to try finding something to eat and all of it looked awful. I settled for a peanut butter “bend over” of one slice of bread with peanut butter smeared and folded over.
So shinners, take the post wherever you wish. It’s the most open of posts/thread.
Lazy Weekend~Time for toons
Posted on: May 5, 2019
To paraphrase an old McDonalds commercial, we deserve a break today. And I mean a break from the 24 hour, seven day a week news cycle that is our current resident of the White House. Hell we need more than a one day break, but sometimes you take what you can get. So no music today, rather a look at the “toons” that have been drawn concerning the current state of affairs in the U.S. And let’s face it: the current state of affairs is uh…sad. So let’s have a few laughs or chuckles about it.
* * * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
And Last:
And yes! I’ll be watching tonight.
Okie doke Widdershins. I hope y’all got at least a small chuckle today.
Open thread of course.
Comments