No, Philip would never have been king. (If, say, Elizabeth had a serious health emergency that incapacitated her or killed her after Charles was born but before Charles reached majority, Philip probably would have been named Regent for the minor, but that wasn’t certain and never happened. And it may have been…

I’m trying to use it as motivation. Reminding myself that protest now means every potential future dystopia is less likely, so get out there and march, make the calls (even if it’s an 11 PM voicemail because I’m just done with phone for the day), go to town hall, do the things.

Apparently, Nova Scotia is marketing Cape Breton to American professionals who want an out. Like, they have websites and immigration attorneys and incentives. Because population loss, and need to rebuild industries. It’s just... ya know... Cape Breton.

I think the 2008 *real estate and credit* crash fucked him financially (not that he ever really recovered from losing money on casinos) and around the same time, his cognitive skills started failing. He was never curious, never terribly engaged, but it really doesn’t take that long for someone in black despair,…

I admit I’m thinking hard about Nova Scotia right now, and trying to figure out how to get Spouse’s start-up to relocate. Now would be a good time to border-hop, for the company and pretty much everyone who works there. My funding runs out at the end of the year, their lease is up in October, and of all the employees…

That’s a bottle, so 4 glasses, of $1000 wine *a day*. 2 bottles of $500. 4 of $250. If it’s any cheaper than that, we’re into Regency levels of consumption and liver damage. What I’m saying is there’s no plausible way to a) drink that much wine a day and b) continue to be a functional human being. What we are seeing…

Because princess seams are easier to tailor to accommodate the girls, if the girls aren’t B cup.

I’d say well above Franco (oh god, that thing hurt) and... on par with Claire Danes. Who, in my opinion, does a great job with the material. (I admit that I only recently picked up the new edition of the audiobook, with the bonus features, and have only listened to it once. I’ve read the book at least a dozen times,…

Just world fallacy. If one doesn’t wear $N, doesn’t drink $Y, doesn’t do $Z, then it can never, ever happen to to a “good person”. It’s usually more subconscious than that, but it’s that simple.

How close to a river that massively floods? All it would have taken was one or two nasty spring floods in the 17th century, after a very late 16th or early 17th century contagion swept through. The community gets hit with measles, with a very high mortality rate (no Europeans needed to transmit it — once measles got…

People like Omarosa don’t fall in love, they just find prey.

I am so in love with Black Violin it’s pathetic. I haven’t fangirl’ed this hard about music since I was 13 and first heard Depeche Mode.

It didn’t crap out; Spouse notices lag and stutter on Spouse’s machines in the evening. (It’s fine on mine, or I don’t notice it’s a problem. Either is possible.) We pay for 40mbps and per speed-testing using Ethernet, we’re getting about 15mbps. (This is also the speed we get with the wifi speed tests.) Per the…

I’m trying to decide if I want to find a new primary care doc. I usually see the PA at the practice I’ve been with for almost 10 years, but she’s been on maternity leave. Which is great for her, and I’m pleased.

It looks great on you. And you know, it grows back, so give it a couple weeks, and then make the decision. But it really, really, really looks fabulous.

Swilling ibuprofen. I got a crown a couple weeks ago, and the tooth is aching. I have an appointment for next week (first that my dentist could see me) but it’s a low, dull ache. Waiting for a replacement router/modem/wifi box so we can start actually getting the service we’re paying for.

Yes. All the catharsis in that. For me, it was the physical abuse, because that was my useless parents’ marriage (with less money and Celeste on her worst day is a much better person than Smother ever was on her best day), down to the “the kids don’t know” (we did) and “but the secks is all teh awesome”.

I have heard through an acquaintance that the Russian model of aircraft production is designed to land on the Russian model of runways, which are prefab and not terribly smooth, so Russian aircraft have sturdier (for fighters) landing gear, and can land on shittier surfaces than Western fighters. Russian runways are…

Librarian chic, with sidearms. If I’m going to have all this white woman privilege and the invisibility of being a middle aged white woman, then I might as well use that goddam superpower for good.

I have no problems using my iPad (It’s my primary portable in fact) but my iPhone freaked out until... I installed an ad-blocker (sorry; I do buy some of your sponsored stuff). Ads are the usual culprit when a site is repeatedly reloading; their JavaScript is often buggy as hell because it’s coded fast and dirty and…