138 Duplicity/145 Capricious - Scarecrow & Mrs. King - Tying the Knot
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vocab_drabblesTitle: Tying the Knot - Again
Fandom: Scarecrow & Mrs. King
Author: Cat Moon
Rating: PG
Words: 586
Characters: Lee/Amanda (other cast mentioned)
Summary: Practice makes perfect, and Lee and Amanda have had a lot of practice.
Author Notes: I was inspired to write some Scarecrow and Mrs. King fic after watching the panel at the Hollywood Show video on YouTube. (a must-see for fans!).
The show enjoyed using the pretend-married trope (one of my favorites!), and used in the following episodes: There Goes the Neighborhood, Weekend, Ship of Spies, and the real wedding was in Do You Take This Spy? There's a bit of head canon in here concerning rings, as well.
( Tying the Knot - Again )
Fandom: Scarecrow & Mrs. King
Author: Cat Moon
Rating: PG
Words: 586
Characters: Lee/Amanda (other cast mentioned)
Summary: Practice makes perfect, and Lee and Amanda have had a lot of practice.
Author Notes: I was inspired to write some Scarecrow and Mrs. King fic after watching the panel at the Hollywood Show video on YouTube. (a must-see for fans!).
The show enjoyed using the pretend-married trope (one of my favorites!), and used in the following episodes: There Goes the Neighborhood, Weekend, Ship of Spies, and the real wedding was in Do You Take This Spy? There's a bit of head canon in here concerning rings, as well.
( Tying the Knot - Again )
Daily Happiness
Jul. 28th, 2025 09:21 pmtorachan1. Well, the new store did not calm down at all today. No one was expecting this. Off the chart sales, which is amazing, but we were not prepared in terms of staffing and everyone is running ragged. I at least don't have to go help today, so I could have a more restful day, but I will go help out at least another day or two later in the week.
2. I got my hair cut this morning. That always feels nice.
3. Look at that cutey chin!
2. I got my hair cut this morning. That always feels nice.
3. Look at that cutey chin!
the arcade graveyard
Jul. 29th, 2025 12:06 amf0rrestArcades are like children, you just hate to see them die.
I live in this little crime-ridden port town that once had a prosperous, populated mall, back in the early 2000s, before online shopping really took off. Back then, you’d go to the mall on the weekends or whatever, and there’d be at least a hundred people there at any given time, snot-nosed kids running around all wild with ice cream cones, escaping from the little play area with the jungle gym above the massive skylights, parents off shopping at Belk or Bath & Body Works or American Eagle or whatever, and teenagers, some dressed in all black with fishnets and Converse and those baggy Tripp pants with all the belts, others in name-brand polos and designer jeans and the newest Jordans or whatever, both groups rebelling in their own ways, all congregating in their little corners of the food court, snickering and scowling at each other, like some sort of prelude to a teenage suburban war or something.
And there I was, sixteen, clumsy, and shy, at the FYE with my mom, buying CDs. I remember I bought some of my favorite CDs from that place, like The Smiths’ Louder Than Bombs, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance, all sorts of Prince records, Bowie, The Cure, Radiohead’s OK Computer. That stuff saved my life. And when I was done, my mom would go shopping by herself, over at the Belk or the Bath & Body Works or the American Eagle or whatever, and I would wander off to the arcade, which was right next to the food court, and I’d spend the next hour, with my mom’s spare credit card, just playing all sorts of arcade games. I was a huge Tekken fan, even competed in a tournament for Tekken 4 one time, Jin and Lee were my favorite characters of course, and I’d even play Dance Dance Revolution a good bit, with some anime-obsessed girls who seemed to just be there all the fucking time, no matter what time of day you showed up, and I liked DDR so much that I bought the PlayStation 2 version and the pad accessory, and I would play it upstairs in my room, and sometimes my mom would play it when I was at school, for exercise I guess, and I knew this because of the in-game records and whatnot, but she would never bring it up, and I figured there was a reason for that, so I never brought it up either, so I guess it was something we shared in silence, which was cool, and I thank the arcade for that, not only for introducing me to Dance Dance Revolution, but also for enabling me to spend time with other kids with similar interests who just knew how to have fun.
But when I go to the mall now, as an adult, there are like ten people in there at any given moment, tops, that’s including myself, a single security guard, and like eight cashiers, and the most exciting thing going on is the black mold growing on the cheap ceiling paneling, which I swear you can watch grow in real time if you’re paying close enough attention, and the old play area is now just an enclosed pen with that weird soft pebbly flooring because all the kid gymnasium stuff broke and they obviously didn't have enough money to replace it, so whenever there are kids in there, which is almost never, they're miserably trying to climb over the walls, begging to be let out, and the skylight now shines this sickly green hue over everything because of all the algae growing on it, like nature is trying to reclaim the whole godforsaken building, and there’s only like two restaurants in the food court now, and all the name-brand stores are gone, replaced by places like “Asian Body Rub” and “Touch of Wireless,” although Belk is still there, attracting approximately one demographic, sixty-to-eighty-year-old grandmas, which, at this point, are probably the only people keeping the mall alive, and by “alive,” I mean like oxygen, feeding tube, urinary catheter, you know, the works, serious life support, because I’ve literally never seen anyone buy anything from anywhere other than Belk, and even the other business owners seem to know this, the old Indian guy with the beard who owns Touch of Wireless just sits in his kiosk all day looking at his phone, he doesn’t even try to wave me down like he used to, because he sees the writing on the wall, he knows the mall is dying, that it’s on serious life support. And honestly, someone just needs to put the place out of its misery at this point, because it’s just sad now, it's just a reminder that everything fades and nothing lasts forever.
And we all know why this is happening. It’s simple, really. It's the internet. Nobody wants to purchase stuff from malls anymore, nobody wants to exert the energy, they’d rather just buy everything online, get it shipped directly to their homes with Prime shipping or whatever, and I’m not above this, I do this too, so I’m not like casting judgment here, this is just what’s happening, these are the facts, we’ve exchanged a community experience for convenience, anyone would do it, if given the opportunity, as evidenced by the mall itself, and it wouldn’t really bother me so much, normally, but today, when I went to the mall, with my son, to let him run around the wide corridors, get some energy out, because we can’t really go outside, on account of it being like six million degrees out, I walked by a certain empty retail space, all locked away behind a security grille, and I was overcome with this certain feeling of loss that I can’t quite put into words, so instead I’ll just describe what I saw.
There, behind the security grille, in the darkness of the unused retail space, there were about twenty arcade cabinets, randomly spread across the room, their once-colorful screens now pitch black, their power cords all twisted like rat kings on the floor, some of the cabinets were turned on their sides, face down, others stood with their guts ripped out, wiring harnesses and coin mechanisms spilling out all over the floor, and in the back of the room, there was a single flickering bulb, casting a light just bright enough for me to make out two distinct machines in the very back, so I narrowed my eyes, and that’s when I saw them, that’s when I saw Tekken 4 and Dance Dance Revolution, and I swear, for a moment there, I saw those anime girls, dancing on the pad, having the time of their lives, and I wanted to go join them, I really did.
But then my son pulled on my pant leg and said, “I wanna go home,” so we went home.
I live in this little crime-ridden port town that once had a prosperous, populated mall, back in the early 2000s, before online shopping really took off. Back then, you’d go to the mall on the weekends or whatever, and there’d be at least a hundred people there at any given time, snot-nosed kids running around all wild with ice cream cones, escaping from the little play area with the jungle gym above the massive skylights, parents off shopping at Belk or Bath & Body Works or American Eagle or whatever, and teenagers, some dressed in all black with fishnets and Converse and those baggy Tripp pants with all the belts, others in name-brand polos and designer jeans and the newest Jordans or whatever, both groups rebelling in their own ways, all congregating in their little corners of the food court, snickering and scowling at each other, like some sort of prelude to a teenage suburban war or something.
And there I was, sixteen, clumsy, and shy, at the FYE with my mom, buying CDs. I remember I bought some of my favorite CDs from that place, like The Smiths’ Louder Than Bombs, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance, all sorts of Prince records, Bowie, The Cure, Radiohead’s OK Computer. That stuff saved my life. And when I was done, my mom would go shopping by herself, over at the Belk or the Bath & Body Works or the American Eagle or whatever, and I would wander off to the arcade, which was right next to the food court, and I’d spend the next hour, with my mom’s spare credit card, just playing all sorts of arcade games. I was a huge Tekken fan, even competed in a tournament for Tekken 4 one time, Jin and Lee were my favorite characters of course, and I’d even play Dance Dance Revolution a good bit, with some anime-obsessed girls who seemed to just be there all the fucking time, no matter what time of day you showed up, and I liked DDR so much that I bought the PlayStation 2 version and the pad accessory, and I would play it upstairs in my room, and sometimes my mom would play it when I was at school, for exercise I guess, and I knew this because of the in-game records and whatnot, but she would never bring it up, and I figured there was a reason for that, so I never brought it up either, so I guess it was something we shared in silence, which was cool, and I thank the arcade for that, not only for introducing me to Dance Dance Revolution, but also for enabling me to spend time with other kids with similar interests who just knew how to have fun.
But when I go to the mall now, as an adult, there are like ten people in there at any given moment, tops, that’s including myself, a single security guard, and like eight cashiers, and the most exciting thing going on is the black mold growing on the cheap ceiling paneling, which I swear you can watch grow in real time if you’re paying close enough attention, and the old play area is now just an enclosed pen with that weird soft pebbly flooring because all the kid gymnasium stuff broke and they obviously didn't have enough money to replace it, so whenever there are kids in there, which is almost never, they're miserably trying to climb over the walls, begging to be let out, and the skylight now shines this sickly green hue over everything because of all the algae growing on it, like nature is trying to reclaim the whole godforsaken building, and there’s only like two restaurants in the food court now, and all the name-brand stores are gone, replaced by places like “Asian Body Rub” and “Touch of Wireless,” although Belk is still there, attracting approximately one demographic, sixty-to-eighty-year-old grandmas, which, at this point, are probably the only people keeping the mall alive, and by “alive,” I mean like oxygen, feeding tube, urinary catheter, you know, the works, serious life support, because I’ve literally never seen anyone buy anything from anywhere other than Belk, and even the other business owners seem to know this, the old Indian guy with the beard who owns Touch of Wireless just sits in his kiosk all day looking at his phone, he doesn’t even try to wave me down like he used to, because he sees the writing on the wall, he knows the mall is dying, that it’s on serious life support. And honestly, someone just needs to put the place out of its misery at this point, because it’s just sad now, it's just a reminder that everything fades and nothing lasts forever.
And we all know why this is happening. It’s simple, really. It's the internet. Nobody wants to purchase stuff from malls anymore, nobody wants to exert the energy, they’d rather just buy everything online, get it shipped directly to their homes with Prime shipping or whatever, and I’m not above this, I do this too, so I’m not like casting judgment here, this is just what’s happening, these are the facts, we’ve exchanged a community experience for convenience, anyone would do it, if given the opportunity, as evidenced by the mall itself, and it wouldn’t really bother me so much, normally, but today, when I went to the mall, with my son, to let him run around the wide corridors, get some energy out, because we can’t really go outside, on account of it being like six million degrees out, I walked by a certain empty retail space, all locked away behind a security grille, and I was overcome with this certain feeling of loss that I can’t quite put into words, so instead I’ll just describe what I saw.
There, behind the security grille, in the darkness of the unused retail space, there were about twenty arcade cabinets, randomly spread across the room, their once-colorful screens now pitch black, their power cords all twisted like rat kings on the floor, some of the cabinets were turned on their sides, face down, others stood with their guts ripped out, wiring harnesses and coin mechanisms spilling out all over the floor, and in the back of the room, there was a single flickering bulb, casting a light just bright enough for me to make out two distinct machines in the very back, so I narrowed my eyes, and that’s when I saw them, that’s when I saw Tekken 4 and Dance Dance Revolution, and I swear, for a moment there, I saw those anime girls, dancing on the pad, having the time of their lives, and I wanted to go join them, I really did.
But then my son pulled on my pant leg and said, “I wanna go home,” so we went home.
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theguardian_longread_feedMany of his supporters hoped the Prime Minister would restore the UK’s commitment to international law. Yet Labour’s record over the past year has been curiously mixed
The international human rights system – the rules, principles and practices intended to ensure that states do not abuse people – is under greater threat now than at any other point since 1945. Fortunately, we in the UK couldn’t wish for a better-qualified prime minister to face this challenge. Keir Starmer is a distinguished former human rights lawyer and prosecutor, with a 30-year career behind him, who expresses a deep personal commitment to defending ordinary people against injustice. He knows human rights law inside out – in fact, he literally wrote the book on its European incarnation – and has acted as a lawyer at more or less every level of the system. (Starmer is the only British prime minister, and probably the only world leader, to have argued a case under the genocide convention – against Serbia on behalf of Croatia in 2014 – at the international court of justice.) He is also an experienced administrator, through his time as director of public prosecutions (DPP), which means he knows how to operate the machinery of state better than most politicians do.
Unfortunately, there’s someone standing in Starmer’s way: a powerful man who critics say is helping to weaken the international human rights system. He fawns over authoritarian demagogues abroad and is seeking to diminish the protections the UK offers to some vulnerable minorities. He conflates peaceful, if disruptive, protest with deadly terrorism and calls for musicians whose views and language he dislikes to be dropped from festival bills. At times, he uses his public platform to criticise courts, whose independence is vital to maintaining the human rights system. At others, he uses legal sophistry to avoid openly stating and defending his own political position, including on matters of life and death. He is, even some of his admirers admit, a ruthless careerist prepared to jettison his stated principles when politically expedient. That person is also called Keir Starmer.
Continue reading...WATCH | Bouchard's retirement celebration on hold after upset victory in front of hometown crowd
Jul. 28th, 2025 09:50 pmcbc_topnews_feed
Montreal tennis fans were ecstatic on Monday night as Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., defeated Emiliana Arango of Columbia 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the first round of the National Bank Open. The tennis pro praised for opening the door for other Canadian tennis players says it will be her last tournament before she retires, finishing off her career at home.
Slightly sunburned
Jul. 28th, 2025 10:30 pmsilver_chipmunkI got up at around 10:30 I think, and had breakfast and coffee, and showered and dressed. I filled the hummingbird feeder with the sugar water nectar I made yesterday (I forgot to journal about that). Then I went over to Sue's cottage and visited with her for awhile.
After that I walked up to the head of the road and looked at the mail, just because. Ran in to Betsy and Piet driving in, they were worried I was heading to town in the heat but I said just up to the head of the road. I meant to go to the pond afterward on the way back, but I forgot til I was past the turn off, so I said I'll go another day, probably tomorrow.
Came back to the cottage, and didn't do much of anything I remember. Was just starting to have something to eat when Betsy passed and said she was on the way down to the beach to meet Sue there, and did I want to come? I said yes but in a bit. I finished eating, and went and put on my swim suit and went down.
Linda joined us and the four of us hung out. Betsy went in with her inner tube, Sue let me borrow hers and I went in too. Then we got out and Betsy and Linda went out kayaking to Keg Creek, and Sue sat for awhile talking. I got a phone call, on the beach! I can't believe my phone could connect, I've never had service there before. Anyway, it was Diane Eschelman, wanting to know if I wanted to get together on Thursday, for the Niagara County Fair. I said yes, of course.
Linda and Betsy got back and Betsy beached her Kayak but Linda stayed floating. Betsy and Sue took the tubes, and I waded in and we hung out in the water for awhile. I heard my phone ringing but there was no way I could have gotten to shore fast enough to answer it so I ignored it.
Eventually we came back to shore. I checked my phone, and found to my surprise it was John Ivon who had called me! We went up then, and I came back to the cottage, dressed, and called John Ivon. I was talking to him when Betsy came by with a pair of flipflops she's lending me for the beach. I passed him on to her to say hello, and it turned into a very long talk, but eventually she passed him back to me and we finished our conversation.
I puttered around on the computer til it was time to Team the FWiB. We were only talking a little while when we lost connection, because of a lightning strike near him, he phoned and told me and said there was a tornado warning and he was going to the basement and he'd talk to me later.
So I decided that it was time for my glass of mead, so I poured it and sat on the porch. Saw Carrie who said hello and how nice it was to see me here.
I read a little, and was just about finished with the mead when I got an email from the FWiB that he was back online. So we finished our Team conversation.
Then I had dinner. Then I lay down on the couch and calledmashfanficchick. We talked a bit, I asked about RK and my pets since I hadn't heard anything, she assured me all was OK> Except Christie's floating rock has come lose from the wall again.
So I Facebook messaged RK and we had a bit of a discussion. All is well with Oreo.
I puttered on my phone awhile, then started here. As then subject line says, I am slightly sunburned, as I stupidly neglected to use sunscreen today on the beach. Luckily it is not bad.
A very nice day.
Gratitude List:
1. The FWiB.
2. RK.
3. Beach time.
4. Mead.
5. The sunburn is minor.
6. Heard from the Eshelmans.
After that I walked up to the head of the road and looked at the mail, just because. Ran in to Betsy and Piet driving in, they were worried I was heading to town in the heat but I said just up to the head of the road. I meant to go to the pond afterward on the way back, but I forgot til I was past the turn off, so I said I'll go another day, probably tomorrow.
Came back to the cottage, and didn't do much of anything I remember. Was just starting to have something to eat when Betsy passed and said she was on the way down to the beach to meet Sue there, and did I want to come? I said yes but in a bit. I finished eating, and went and put on my swim suit and went down.
Linda joined us and the four of us hung out. Betsy went in with her inner tube, Sue let me borrow hers and I went in too. Then we got out and Betsy and Linda went out kayaking to Keg Creek, and Sue sat for awhile talking. I got a phone call, on the beach! I can't believe my phone could connect, I've never had service there before. Anyway, it was Diane Eschelman, wanting to know if I wanted to get together on Thursday, for the Niagara County Fair. I said yes, of course.
Linda and Betsy got back and Betsy beached her Kayak but Linda stayed floating. Betsy and Sue took the tubes, and I waded in and we hung out in the water for awhile. I heard my phone ringing but there was no way I could have gotten to shore fast enough to answer it so I ignored it.
Eventually we came back to shore. I checked my phone, and found to my surprise it was John Ivon who had called me! We went up then, and I came back to the cottage, dressed, and called John Ivon. I was talking to him when Betsy came by with a pair of flipflops she's lending me for the beach. I passed him on to her to say hello, and it turned into a very long talk, but eventually she passed him back to me and we finished our conversation.
I puttered around on the computer til it was time to Team the FWiB. We were only talking a little while when we lost connection, because of a lightning strike near him, he phoned and told me and said there was a tornado warning and he was going to the basement and he'd talk to me later.
So I decided that it was time for my glass of mead, so I poured it and sat on the porch. Saw Carrie who said hello and how nice it was to see me here.
I read a little, and was just about finished with the mead when I got an email from the FWiB that he was back online. So we finished our Team conversation.
Then I had dinner. Then I lay down on the couch and called
mashfanficchick. We talked a bit, I asked about RK and my pets since I hadn't heard anything, she assured me all was OK> Except Christie's floating rock has come lose from the wall again.So I Facebook messaged RK and we had a bit of a discussion. All is well with Oreo.
I puttered on my phone awhile, then started here. As then subject line says, I am slightly sunburned, as I stupidly neglected to use sunscreen today on the beach. Luckily it is not bad.
A very nice day.
Gratitude List:
1. The FWiB.
2. RK.
3. Beach time.
4. Mead.
5. The sunburn is minor.
6. Heard from the Eshelmans.
Dance!
Jul. 28th, 2025 10:32 pmjducoeurOh, and here's a little note worth calling out:
Over the past year, I've been getting more into Scottish Country Dance. I'm by no means an expert -- sadly, I've had to accept that I'm not as bouncy as I once was, and after fracturing my foot a couple of years ago I'm allowing my style to be loose and sloppy -- but I've become a regular member of the Gender-Free Scottish Country Dance class happening in the NESFA Clubhouse twice a month, and am quite enjoying it.
A couple of weeks ago was ESCape, the annual Pinewoods week co-hosted by the local English, Scottish, and Contra communities, which has become a highlight of my annual schedule. Classes all day and balls all night, it's a dancer's dream, and the community is relatively young, queer, geeky, and thoroughly fun to be around.
A particular tidbit this year was the day where Sorcy taught McCloud's Wedding (? I think that was the name), a delightfully weird, intricate, five-couple dance where basically everybody is active. Wild stuff, and at the end of the rather large class they asked for ten volunteers to perform a demo set during the ESCape Chocolate Party on Thursday. They got over a dozen volunteers, so I demurred, but told them that if they came up short, they should pull me in.
Not astonishingly, the party rolled around and they were short on people, so I got grabbed for a quick once-through and then on to the performance. And it was caught on video, so if you're curious what this SCD stuff looks like (in a rather complex form), give it a look!
Catching up with Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Jul. 28th, 2025 08:53 pmmmcirvinWhen I was a kid living in the DC suburbs, the closest thing we had to a home amusement park was Kings Dominion near Richmond. We went there several times, but we always preferred a couple that were a bit further away: Hersheypark in Pennsylvania, and (once it opened) the brand-new "Busch Gardens: The Old Country" in Williamsburg, VA, which promised to simulate a European vacation close to home. It never quite did that, but it at least had some pretty theming and landscaping. And, over time, it started accumulating impressive rides.
When I went to college in Williamsburg, Busch Gardens Williamsburg very much was my home park, and that was when I started riding their roller coasters. But the last time I was there was in the early 1990s, so the last coaster I'd ridden was the ill-fated Drachen Fire (an exciting but mis-designed ride that beat me up enough that, in hindsight, it put me off riding coasters regularly for decades).
Getting interested in them again in the 2010s, I was aware that BGW had added many impressive new rides. But though I still have family in Virginia, I'd never found the time to go back there. My sister and her family love the place (still much more than they do Kings Dominion) and go often, and she'd had a long-standing offer to take me back to Busch Gardens sometime.
We went down there to hang with family over the past several days, and on Friday, with a smaller party consisting of my sister and my daughter, I finally caught up with Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It was an oppressively hot weekday, so crowds were very light. But it did mean we had to hydrate and pace ourselves. Nevertheless, I managed to ride a lot:
Yeah, I went straight to Pantheon, their massive multi-launch top-hat coaster. None of this working up to things. My rides on coasters with inversions were going to be solo, since the people I was with don't like those, but that's fine. It was nearly a walk-on. I had an interesting conversation with the guy riding next to me, the kind of coaster freak who indulges his hobby while traveling on business (seems to be a common thing).
Apart from its lackluster "Roman" theming and maybe being a bit too short, everything about Pantheon is great: the weirdly banked airtime hills, the forward and backward swing launch with an airtime bump in the middle of it, the way it launches you directly into an inversion out of the station just to show you it means business, the stall that is basically a whole hill taken upside down. What you can't see in the video is that the lap restraint seems designed to give you a lot of room to float around, so my butt was flying off the seat basically the whole time. Good times.
InvadR, the wooden coaster in this Coasterforce video, was the coaster for the whole group, since my kid has decided she likes wooden coasters on this scale and my sister has always liked them. This is the first coaster by manufacturer GCI that I've ridden, though Compounce's Wildcat has GCI trains and Boulder Dash has GCI retrack. It's a modern but smallish ride, 75 feet tall with a tangled twister layout. InvadR is a decent ride, though it has more rattle than some other woodies we've ridden lately. This is in the "New France" section that the park has always had as a sort of Frontierland, fudging the Europe theme a bit. The theming seems vaguely based on ideas of Viking colonization in the New World but seems to imagine the Vikings attacking French Canada? I'm not sure the dates work out. Oh well, it's got some bite and it was fun to be able to ride with everyone.
My sister and I rode the newest one in the park, Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf's Revenge (pictured in this Attraction Source video). It's a nice tribute to the original, defunct Big Bad Wolf, which was a formative ride for me, but it's considerably tamer than the original, with no large drop and inverted but not free-swinging cars. It's built not in the original BBW's space (which is taken up by Verbolten), but in the area formerly occupied by Drachen Fire. The village theming, though, is more elaborate than the original version. Since your legs are dangling free, they can really go to town with foot-chopper illusions, which were rather disconcerting to me, since I'm used to head-choppers but not this.
An unusual thing about it is that unlike many coasters of this type, there isn't any kind of retracting floor to help load and unload in the station, so getting on and off can be quite a hop, which slows things down and will require many smaller riders to be boosted by an adult. The seats are also some of the least accommodating for larger riders. But I can imagine that for many kids, this ride will be a gateway to riding big coasters like the original Wolf was, as long as they can take the idea of dangling below the track.
At this point, things were getting downright nostalgic. We took in some lunch and air conditioning in the old Festhaus near BBW: The Wolf's Revenge, and to stay cool we all took a couple of spins on Roman Rapids, which was the first theme-park raft ride I ever rode, depicted here by Canobie Coaster:
It's nothing special as these rides go, though the theming is a little unusual. But my next ride, after some nonsensical struggles with the park's locker system, was a very special trip down memory lane:
The ride, the myth, the Monster. This CoasterForce video shows the refurbished Loch Ness Monster with the audio and theming enhancements they put in last season, including audio on the lift hill, video in the long helix tunnel and a statue of the Monster after the final loop. It's running great and I'm happy to say that it holds up. This was the first looping coaster I ever rode, about 35 years ago; it's outlived some of its successors, and it's great to see the park giving it love.
After a transit ride on the park's wonderful triangular skyride network, I tried a coaster that surprised me--I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, possibly because it's of a type that gets some snobbery from coaster enthusiasts:
Griffon, in the "France" area, is a colossal B&M dive coaster with a very simple layout, shown here by Coasterforce: its main event is a 200-foot, entirely vertical drop, which it first dangles riders over for several seconds like sinners in the hand of an angry God. That leads into a huge swooping Immelmann turn, which leads to... another vertical drop and another Immelmann, as if we didn't get it the first time. Then there's one little airtime hill, culminating in a splashdown effect which is mostly there to wow people watching from off-ride (you don't get wet), and into the brakes.
It seemed like it might be kind of a one-trick pony. But experiencing it in person, you get the full force of its theatrics. Everything about it is outsized. The track and the station and the trains look like they were made for beings several times the size of normal humans. The view from the leisurely turnaround before the first drop is spectacular, skyscraper-worthy. And it makes sure you get a really good long dangle over the abyss, held in only by shoulder restraints. More than any other coaster at BGW, the aim is awe. It really gives you the feeling of being manhandled by inhuman forces. I do think Pantheon is the best ride at the park, but Griffon is a surprisingly close second for me.
We had some ice cream in the France area and spent some time listening to a band that did a pretty good cover of Fountains of Wayne's "Stacy's Mom." Then it was some more transiting on the skyride, culminating in a long, hot march to our last ride of the evening:
Yeah, I knew we were gonna do Apollo's Chariot (depicted by Coaster Studios there) sooner or later, because my sister likes it, and it's great to be able to ride with somebody. (We'd tried to ride it earlier in the day, but it was broken down then.) My kid declined, but this B&M hypercoaster is the kind of truly massive ride that people who aren't hardcore coaster freaks will actually ride, because it doesn't beat them up and the thrills are just manageable enough. It's a lovely long ride, and it was actually more forceful than I expected--it may have been because I was tired and overheated, but I was graying out a little on the turnaround helix. I love that surprise violent dip at the end where they take the on-ride photo.
What didn't I ride? Well, DarKoaster has been broken all season, and I wasn't that interested in Verbolten (dis-recommended by my sister), Tempesto (essentially identical to Phobia Phear Coaster at Lake Compounce--a good ride, but it's not a priority here), or Grover's Alpine Express in the Sesame Street-themed kiddie land (my companions did ride that a couple of times when I was off riding something else).
And I just had to triage out Alpengeist, the giant inverted looper, which would have been one assault too many for my old body in that boiling, busy day. That's a ride I've been interested in for a long time, nevertheless. In a sense it was the ride that started to turn the Busch Gardens I knew as a kid into the park it is today. My brother-in-law doesn't like it, but I'll surely do it if I ever go back.
When I went to college in Williamsburg, Busch Gardens Williamsburg very much was my home park, and that was when I started riding their roller coasters. But the last time I was there was in the early 1990s, so the last coaster I'd ridden was the ill-fated Drachen Fire (an exciting but mis-designed ride that beat me up enough that, in hindsight, it put me off riding coasters regularly for decades).
Getting interested in them again in the 2010s, I was aware that BGW had added many impressive new rides. But though I still have family in Virginia, I'd never found the time to go back there. My sister and her family love the place (still much more than they do Kings Dominion) and go often, and she'd had a long-standing offer to take me back to Busch Gardens sometime.
We went down there to hang with family over the past several days, and on Friday, with a smaller party consisting of my sister and my daughter, I finally caught up with Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It was an oppressively hot weekday, so crowds were very light. But it did mean we had to hydrate and pace ourselves. Nevertheless, I managed to ride a lot:
Yeah, I went straight to Pantheon, their massive multi-launch top-hat coaster. None of this working up to things. My rides on coasters with inversions were going to be solo, since the people I was with don't like those, but that's fine. It was nearly a walk-on. I had an interesting conversation with the guy riding next to me, the kind of coaster freak who indulges his hobby while traveling on business (seems to be a common thing).
Apart from its lackluster "Roman" theming and maybe being a bit too short, everything about Pantheon is great: the weirdly banked airtime hills, the forward and backward swing launch with an airtime bump in the middle of it, the way it launches you directly into an inversion out of the station just to show you it means business, the stall that is basically a whole hill taken upside down. What you can't see in the video is that the lap restraint seems designed to give you a lot of room to float around, so my butt was flying off the seat basically the whole time. Good times.
InvadR, the wooden coaster in this Coasterforce video, was the coaster for the whole group, since my kid has decided she likes wooden coasters on this scale and my sister has always liked them. This is the first coaster by manufacturer GCI that I've ridden, though Compounce's Wildcat has GCI trains and Boulder Dash has GCI retrack. It's a modern but smallish ride, 75 feet tall with a tangled twister layout. InvadR is a decent ride, though it has more rattle than some other woodies we've ridden lately. This is in the "New France" section that the park has always had as a sort of Frontierland, fudging the Europe theme a bit. The theming seems vaguely based on ideas of Viking colonization in the New World but seems to imagine the Vikings attacking French Canada? I'm not sure the dates work out. Oh well, it's got some bite and it was fun to be able to ride with everyone.
My sister and I rode the newest one in the park, Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf's Revenge (pictured in this Attraction Source video). It's a nice tribute to the original, defunct Big Bad Wolf, which was a formative ride for me, but it's considerably tamer than the original, with no large drop and inverted but not free-swinging cars. It's built not in the original BBW's space (which is taken up by Verbolten), but in the area formerly occupied by Drachen Fire. The village theming, though, is more elaborate than the original version. Since your legs are dangling free, they can really go to town with foot-chopper illusions, which were rather disconcerting to me, since I'm used to head-choppers but not this.
An unusual thing about it is that unlike many coasters of this type, there isn't any kind of retracting floor to help load and unload in the station, so getting on and off can be quite a hop, which slows things down and will require many smaller riders to be boosted by an adult. The seats are also some of the least accommodating for larger riders. But I can imagine that for many kids, this ride will be a gateway to riding big coasters like the original Wolf was, as long as they can take the idea of dangling below the track.
At this point, things were getting downright nostalgic. We took in some lunch and air conditioning in the old Festhaus near BBW: The Wolf's Revenge, and to stay cool we all took a couple of spins on Roman Rapids, which was the first theme-park raft ride I ever rode, depicted here by Canobie Coaster:
It's nothing special as these rides go, though the theming is a little unusual. But my next ride, after some nonsensical struggles with the park's locker system, was a very special trip down memory lane:
The ride, the myth, the Monster. This CoasterForce video shows the refurbished Loch Ness Monster with the audio and theming enhancements they put in last season, including audio on the lift hill, video in the long helix tunnel and a statue of the Monster after the final loop. It's running great and I'm happy to say that it holds up. This was the first looping coaster I ever rode, about 35 years ago; it's outlived some of its successors, and it's great to see the park giving it love.
After a transit ride on the park's wonderful triangular skyride network, I tried a coaster that surprised me--I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, possibly because it's of a type that gets some snobbery from coaster enthusiasts:
Griffon, in the "France" area, is a colossal B&M dive coaster with a very simple layout, shown here by Coasterforce: its main event is a 200-foot, entirely vertical drop, which it first dangles riders over for several seconds like sinners in the hand of an angry God. That leads into a huge swooping Immelmann turn, which leads to... another vertical drop and another Immelmann, as if we didn't get it the first time. Then there's one little airtime hill, culminating in a splashdown effect which is mostly there to wow people watching from off-ride (you don't get wet), and into the brakes.
It seemed like it might be kind of a one-trick pony. But experiencing it in person, you get the full force of its theatrics. Everything about it is outsized. The track and the station and the trains look like they were made for beings several times the size of normal humans. The view from the leisurely turnaround before the first drop is spectacular, skyscraper-worthy. And it makes sure you get a really good long dangle over the abyss, held in only by shoulder restraints. More than any other coaster at BGW, the aim is awe. It really gives you the feeling of being manhandled by inhuman forces. I do think Pantheon is the best ride at the park, but Griffon is a surprisingly close second for me.
We had some ice cream in the France area and spent some time listening to a band that did a pretty good cover of Fountains of Wayne's "Stacy's Mom." Then it was some more transiting on the skyride, culminating in a long, hot march to our last ride of the evening:
Yeah, I knew we were gonna do Apollo's Chariot (depicted by Coaster Studios there) sooner or later, because my sister likes it, and it's great to be able to ride with somebody. (We'd tried to ride it earlier in the day, but it was broken down then.) My kid declined, but this B&M hypercoaster is the kind of truly massive ride that people who aren't hardcore coaster freaks will actually ride, because it doesn't beat them up and the thrills are just manageable enough. It's a lovely long ride, and it was actually more forceful than I expected--it may have been because I was tired and overheated, but I was graying out a little on the turnaround helix. I love that surprise violent dip at the end where they take the on-ride photo.
What didn't I ride? Well, DarKoaster has been broken all season, and I wasn't that interested in Verbolten (dis-recommended by my sister), Tempesto (essentially identical to Phobia Phear Coaster at Lake Compounce--a good ride, but it's not a priority here), or Grover's Alpine Express in the Sesame Street-themed kiddie land (my companions did ride that a couple of times when I was off riding something else).
And I just had to triage out Alpengeist, the giant inverted looper, which would have been one assault too many for my old body in that boiling, busy day. That's a ride I've been interested in for a long time, nevertheless. In a sense it was the ride that started to turn the Busch Gardens I knew as a kid into the park it is today. My brother-in-law doesn't like it, but I'll surely do it if I ever go back.
Dogwood Rose #9, Light Black #25 [The Fulcrum]
Jul. 28th, 2025 06:38 pmparadoxcase posting in rainbowficName: Ghlídrow Week
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Dogwood Rose #9: lavender: enchantment, Light Black #25: Fly
Styles and Supplies: Panorama
Word Count: 2331
Rating: T
Warnings: Fantasy Drug Abuse (like, way more than usual)
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: 1912.2.2.5; Summer 1431
Summary: Qhoroali begins to teach Setsiana how to Guide.
( Ghlidrow Week )
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Dogwood Rose #9: lavender: enchantment, Light Black #25: Fly
Styles and Supplies: Panorama
Word Count: 2331
Rating: T
Warnings: Fantasy Drug Abuse (like, way more than usual)
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: 1912.2.2.5; Summer 1431
Summary: Qhoroali begins to teach Setsiana how to Guide.
( Ghlidrow Week )
Activism
Jul. 28th, 2025 08:35 pmysabetwordsmithNonprofit hosts 'ghost trap' rodeo: A fishing tournament for cleaning abandoned fishing gear out of the water
Ghost traps are fishing traps that have been swept away in storms and currents or simply abandoned over time.
Once lost, these rusted traps often pose risks to coral reefs below and passing boats above — all while trapping and killing marine life that die long before they are pulled to the surface.
[---8<---]
“We started in October of 2018 through a grant from NOAA, which enabled us to hold seven tournament-style marine debris events around Tampa Bay,” Holland told the Port Charlotte Sun in mid-July.
“In that first year, our target was 15,000 pounds of marine debris. We ended up collecting 27,000 pounds, and had fabulous numbers of community members coming out to participate,” he said.
( Read more... )
Ghost traps are fishing traps that have been swept away in storms and currents or simply abandoned over time.
Once lost, these rusted traps often pose risks to coral reefs below and passing boats above — all while trapping and killing marine life that die long before they are pulled to the surface.
[---8<---]
“We started in October of 2018 through a grant from NOAA, which enabled us to hold seven tournament-style marine debris events around Tampa Bay,” Holland told the Port Charlotte Sun in mid-July.
“In that first year, our target was 15,000 pounds of marine debris. We ended up collecting 27,000 pounds, and had fabulous numbers of community members coming out to participate,” he said.
( Read more... )
Book 75, 2025
Jul. 28th, 2025 08:21 pmchez_jae
Murder at the Lemonberry Tea by Darci HannahMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
View all my reviews
Finished reading Murder at the Lemonberry Tea last night. It’s the 6th installment in Darci Hannah’s “Beacon Bakeshop” cozy mystery series. Main character is Lindsey Bakewell, who owns and operates the Beacon Bakeshop.
Lindsey is excited to be hosting famed British chef Vivi Lemonberry at the Beacon Bakeshop. Among the planned activities are a live baking show and a proper English tea. Lindsey’s euphoria fades, however, when she realizes what a diva Vivi is. Lindsey also learns that Vivi is in the US in hopes of distancing herself from several scandals in the UK as she relaunches her career. When Vivi is a no-show at her own Lemonberry Tea, Lindsey is fit to be tied. Later, Lindsey and her boyfriend, Rory, discover Vivi floating in the lake. Now Lindsey is being looked at as a person of interest, due to her contentious encounters with the diva. Lindsey is compelled to solve the murder herself, with help from Rory and their families and friends.
Fun story. Vivi was an interesting character. At times she came across as nasty snot, while at other times she was more sympathetic. Other characterizations were done well. I enjoyed reconnecting with familiar characters and meeting new ones. Plot was engrossing and included some downtime for Lindsey.
Favorite lines:
♦ “I like my whiskey like my men, Irish.”
♦ “It’s sisters. I have one. Love her to death, but she drives me nuts.”
Lovely story, with delicious-sounding baked good. Four stars!
Monday Update 7-28-25
Jul. 28th, 2025 04:51 pmysabetwordsmithThese are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Utopia
Green Energy
Birdfeeding
Summer of the 69
Green Building
New Crowdfunding Project: Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Cozy Academia Anthology
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 7-25-25: Horror
Activism
France Recognizes Palestine
Aroace Spectrum
Birdfeeding
Hobbies: Hairstyling
Poem: "Fed from So Many Sources"
Poem: "The Future by Consequence, the Past by Redemption"
Poem: "Strong, Competent, Capable"
Housing
Crafts
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Hard Things
"Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 48 comments. "Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness" has 75 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 148 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 97 comments.
sunshine_revival is running through July. See the schedule, meet the moderators, and use the master post to navigate the event. Meet new folks in the friending meme. Spread the word!
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 1: Light
Poem: "The Pleasure of Escaping the Responsibility"
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 2: Tunnel of Love
Poem: "Legs of Grass, Feet of Flowers"
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 3: Food
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 4: Fun House
Poem: "The Bee Tree's Gift"
* Sunshine Challenge 5: Carnival Barker
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 6: Game Night
Poem: "A New Twist"
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 7: The Ferris Wheel
summerofthe69 is now open! You can see the calendar here and the current themes are Sopping Wet and 69 Accommodations.
There are no open epics at present.
The weather has been hot and wet here. It rained again yesterday. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of mourning doves, a male cardinal, a gray catbird, and a fox squirrel. I've heard red-winged blackbirds, wrens, and a woodpecker without seeing them. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, impatiens, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, narrow-leaf mountain mint, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, gladioli, firewheel, orange butterfly weed. Tomatillo and pepper have green fruit. Wild strawberries, mulberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers are ripe. Peas are done. The second crop of blackberries is ripe.
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Utopia
Green Energy
Birdfeeding
Summer of the 69
Green Building
New Crowdfunding Project: Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Cozy Academia Anthology
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 7-25-25: Horror
Activism
France Recognizes Palestine
Aroace Spectrum
Birdfeeding
Hobbies: Hairstyling
Poem: "Fed from So Many Sources"
Poem: "The Future by Consequence, the Past by Redemption"
Poem: "Strong, Competent, Capable"
Housing
Crafts
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Hard Things
"Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 48 comments. "Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness" has 75 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 148 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 97 comments.
sunshine_revival is running through July. See the schedule, meet the moderators, and use the master post to navigate the event. Meet new folks in the friending meme. Spread the word!* Sunshine Revival Challenge 1: Light
Poem: "The Pleasure of Escaping the Responsibility"
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 2: Tunnel of Love
Poem: "Legs of Grass, Feet of Flowers"
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 3: Food
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 4: Fun House
Poem: "The Bee Tree's Gift"
* Sunshine Challenge 5: Carnival Barker
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 6: Game Night
Poem: "A New Twist"
* Sunshine Revival Challenge 7: The Ferris Wheel
summerofthe69 is now open! You can see the calendar here and the current themes are Sopping Wet and 69 Accommodations.There are no open epics at present.
The weather has been hot and wet here. It rained again yesterday. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of mourning doves, a male cardinal, a gray catbird, and a fox squirrel. I've heard red-winged blackbirds, wrens, and a woodpecker without seeing them. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, impatiens, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, narrow-leaf mountain mint, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, gladioli, firewheel, orange butterfly weed. Tomatillo and pepper have green fruit. Wild strawberries, mulberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers are ripe. Peas are done. The second crop of blackberries is ripe.
Green Gables Heritage Place in P.E.I. sees 20% spike in visitors over last season
Jul. 28th, 2025 05:00 amcbc_topnews_feed
The Green Gable's Heritage Place has seen increased visitor ship so far this year, the park has seen a nearly 20 per cent increase in visitors this year, compared to 2024 numbers.
Daily Check-in
Jul. 28th, 2025 06:00 pmstarwatcher posting in fandom_checkinThis is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Monday, June July 28, to midnight on Tuesday, July 29. (8pm Eastern Time).
Poll #33438 Daily Check-in
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 17
How are you doing?
I am OK.
11 (64.7%)
I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
6 (35.3%)
I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)
How many other humans live with you?
I am living single.
6 (35.3%)
One other person.
8 (47.1%)
More than one other person.
3 (17.6%)
Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
Just one thing: 29 July 2025
Jul. 28th, 2025 06:52 pmjazzyjj posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
There's a painkiller shortage in Canada. Here's what to know
Jul. 28th, 2025 06:19 pmcbc_topnews_feed
There is a shortage of some commonly-prescribed painkillers in Canada — including acetaminophen with codeine and acetaminophen with oxycodone — as companies that supply them deal with manufacturing disruptions and increased demand. Pharmacists advise patients to plan ahead and speak with them about managing prescriptions.
Man accused of killing brother of Lapu-Lapu Day murder suspect pleads guilty
Jul. 28th, 2025 03:06 pmcbc_topnews_feed
Dwigth Kematch, 40, will be sentenced in Vancouver on Aug. 11 after pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of Alexander Lo, the older brother of Kai-Ji Adam Lo.