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| Hosted by - you guessed it - fruit cocktail |
Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup
Rocket-shaped popsicles that dyed your lips blue were popular when I was a kid. That era got labeled "the space age" in honor of some longed-for, supersonic, utopian future. Another food of my youth was candy corn, mostly seen on Halloween. With its striped triangular "kernels" made of sugar, wax, and corn syrup, candy corn was a nostalgic treat, harkening back to days when humans grew, rather than manufactured, food. But what was fruit cocktail's secret meaning? It glistened as though varnished. Faint of taste and watery, it contained anemic grapes, wrinkled and pale. Also deflated maraschino cherries. Fan-shaped pineapple chunks, and squares of bleached peach and pear completed the scene. Fruit cocktail's colorlessness, its lack of connection to anything living (like tree, seed, or leaf) seemed cautionary, sad. A bowl of soupy, faded, funeral fruit. No more nourishing than a child's finger painting, masquerading as a happy appetizer, fruit cocktail insisted on pretending everything was ok. Eating it meant you embraced tastelessness. It meant you were easily fooled. It meant you'd pretend semblances, no matter how pathetic, were real, and that when things got dicey, you'd spurn the truth. Eating fruit cocktail meant you might deny that ghosts whirled throughout the house and got sucked up the chimney on nights Dad wadded up old newspapers, warned you away from the hearth, and finally lit a fire.
- Amy Gerstler
Open thread: Friday Recommendations! Tell us what you're watching, listening to, reading, and especially writing! (Or talk about the hopelessness inherent in fruit cocktail, that's cool too!)
~ Kristycat
Shut Up!
You know what I am a sucker for? I am a sucker for big cats acting like little cats.
Big cats in boxes, big cats
playing with toys, big cats
unraveling toilet paper, it's all awesome. I'm not sure WHY it delights my soul to see leopards and tigers and jaguars and ocelots acting like giant versions of my own goofball kitties, but it so does.
Open thread! Do you know any cool big cat trivia, or have any big cat stories? Do you have any more cool pictures or videos along these same lines? (The judges will also accept "wolves acting like puppies" or other related themes.) Or for that matter, any cool trivia or stories about small cats? (Alternately you could ignore cats altogether and talk about, I don't know, Zen Buddhism or multivitamins or whether or not Darth Vader is a role model for fathers everywhere, cuz, y'know. Open thread.)
~ Kristycat
Shut Up!
A friend of mine is learning to play the mandolin. Cool kids learn to play guitar; nerds learn fun instruments like the mandolin and end up playing minstrel by a bonfire, strumming it like a lute and singing a song that could have come straight from the 1500's while passing around a bottle of mead.
It's got a decent enough sound - I'll be honest, I
am a sucker for the rich tones of a good acoustic guitar, and compared to that a mandolin sounds a little tinny. But it fits the music it's meant for, and the tone is just different enough from what you're used to that it helps build the illusion of being elsewhere and elsewhen.
Open thread! Does anyone play an instrument? Does anyone play a relatively unusual instrument? Let's talk about music, about instruments, about folk songs and every other type of song, or about anything else for that matter, it's an open thread!
~ Kristycat
Shut Up!
The title basically covers it, I sort of dropped the ball here but do please say interesting things.
Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s coming up, give us something new to explore!
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And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!
Shut Up!
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Hosted by an actual sign from my actual hometown
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So this is a thing that happened, for real, in real life. Welcome to Florida.
Although I have been assured that it would fit right in in Texas as well.
Open thread! Discuss the implications of getting a shotgun with your jewelry purchase! Discuss what on earth it says about our culture that you CAN get a shotgun as a free gift! Writer's challenge: come up with a non-horrifying scenario where someone sees this and goes "Hot damn, jewelry AND a gun! Just what I needed!" Discuss Florida and Texas and other regional stereotypes, and whether they are (in your experience) justified! Or discuss something else entirely, it's a open thread! Have fun :)
~ Kristycat
(side note: there are more than a few interpretations of this that can be trigger-ific, please note comments accordingly! Thank you!)
Shut Up!
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Sakura, Sakura
sakura sakura
noyama mo sato mo
mi-watasu kagiri
kasumi ka kumo ka
asahi ni niou
sakura sakura
hana zakari
sakura sakura
yayoi no sora wa
mi-watasu kagiri
kasumi ka kumo ka
nioi zo izuru
izaya izaya
mini yukan
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Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,
In fields and villages
As far as you can see.
Is it a mist, or clouds?
Fragrant in the morning sun.
Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,
Flowers in full bloom.
Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,
Across the spring sky,
As far as you can see.
Is it a mist, or clouds?
Fragrant in the air.
Come now, come now,
Let's look, at last!
-Japanese folk song
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My mother used to sing this song to me; she learned it on the Navy base in Okinawa when she was a little girl. I never saw cherry trees until I went away to college, and then they were all over the quad at my school. Every spring they'd bloom, and every spring I'd walk through them, grinning and singing words I didn't understand in a language I didn't speak.
Open thread! Are there cherry trees where you live, and do you watch the petals fall? Have you heard this song before? If there are no cherry trees near you (or if there are, and you just don't like cherry trees), what do you think are the prettiest trees?
Also, it is FRIDAY OPEN THREAD, which means recommendations - self-promote or point us towards something cool!
~ Kristycat
Shut Up!
I may have posted this song last summer; I don't care, I like it.
Summer is usually one of my favorite seasons; currently my air conditioning is broken, so I'm perhaps not enjoying it QUITE as much as usual!
Open Thread! Do you like summer, and if not, which is your favorite season? What do you like to do during summer? How do you beat the heat? If you're in school (teacher or student), do you do anything fun with your vacation?
~ Kristycat
Shut Up!
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Hello, everyone! It's your friendly* neighborhood moderator, Kristycat. If you missed the previous announcement, Ana is on hiatus, and there is a very good chance she will not be coming back. However, the blog is not closed yet! Until and unless that happens, we are going to keep Open Threads up and running, so that people can chat and be social and so that the community can keep going.
Today's open thread is brought to you by pictures of Earth from space. Because when I'm angry, they make me feel calm and happy :) Astronaut
Reid Wiseman has posted a whole metric fuckton of gorgeous pictures on his Twitter account, and that link there has 55 of the best of them. They are beautiful!
Open thread! Which pictures are your favorite? Are you as excited about the space program as I am? Do you have any interesting facts or exciting news about space or space-related science to share? If outer space isn't really your thing, what other pictures or songs or stories, etc., do you like to use to help you feel calm and happy? Please share!
~ Kristycat
*for given values of "friendly." Results may vary.
(Mod note: commenting rules were significantly relaxed during the previous thread. They are BACK ON. Please be respectful and observe the comment policy.)
Shut Up!
