Yesterday I almost cried because my baby cousin ran up to my grandmother and was like. “Ha! Buhbuh ba ha.” And she said okay you want to show me something? And he led her over to the garden patch and crouched down and pointed at rocks and plants and was like. “Ah. Habah ba ah” as she listened attentively.
And I was like that happened 1,000 years ago. Probably 10,000 years ago. Maybe 100,000. The youngest human in a group went to the oldest one and said to the best of their ability “come see.” And the adult went.
this is such a beautiful post it doesn’t need my dumb addition, but i can’t fit this in the tags. at the archaeological site Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic there are a bunch of really really fascinating finds and I’m only going to tell you about one tiny detail of one of the most interesting sites in the world.
at this settlement 20-30,000 years ago there lived a person who appears to have been a sort of sorcerer-grandmother-ceramics artist and her workshop was preserved very well in the sedimentary layers. her hut where she had her kilns was full of little sculptures of animals and people that seem to have been made to explode in the kiln on purpose, we’re not sure why but nevermind. the relevant detail is that when you sculpt something with your hands and then fire it, your fingerprints can be preserved in the surface of the clay forever, so we have fingerprints of ancient ceramics artists that have survived for tens of thousands of years. and one of the major artifacts from Dolni Vestonice has a fingerprint on it that is so small it could only have belonged to a child
so this shaman-grandmother-sculptor, who was buried with her pet fox by the way, had children running through her workshop and touching everything she made while she was at her mysterious work of creating the world’s oldest ceramics, none of which appear to be bowls, bottles, pots, or any “useful” items at all, but rather a collection of animal and human and sometimes anthropomorphic figures, some of which appear to be self portraits. exactly the same as sandersstudios’ grandmother being led to the garden by an excited baby. we’ve all been the same for 30,000 years.
USPS was completely self-sustaining until 2006, when Congress inexplicably began requiring it to pre-fund retirement health benefits for all of its eligible employees and retirees, 75 years in advance. This unprecedented requirement cost USPS more than $5 billion per year for 16 years … which is almost exactly the amount they were in debt.
And still, USPS maintains First Class mail delivery to every household in the country within 5 days for less than a dollar. No private carrier comes close to their price point (which USPS actually doesn’t control), and many of them actually use USPS as their “last mile” carrier in rural areas where it’s too costly for them to operate.
It’s a lot healthier to go for a daily walk than to sign up for a gym membership you won’t be using because you hate that kind of exercise. It’s a lot healthier to eat a frozen meal than to skip a meal because you were too tired to cook something healthy. It’s a lot healthier to take a quick shower than to procrastinate an elaborate routine for days. Don’t aim so high that you won’t be hitting anything!
this is actually really helpful and affirming thanks
‘but whyyy would tolkien shoehorn sam into a romantic relationship with rosie when it’s so obvious that frodo’s the most important person in his life?’
hear me out, what if…and this is a long shot…tolkien had lived through some deeply harrowing experiences that emphasised that people can love each other in different ways and they’re all equally important? and that the strongest bonds you form aren’t always explicitly romantic? what if everything in tolkien’s work (eowyn’s different loves for faramir and aragorn, boromir having no interest in romantic relationships and putting everything into his love for his city) fairly dripped with the idea that romance isn’t the only important sort of love? what then?
With Winnie-the-Pooh and The Battle of Hastings sharing an anniversary today, did you know that E. H. Shepard once drew this amazing scene for an exclusive book bag?
I love that none of them have weapons. Except Kanga, who has a fucking morningstar.
the man who owns and runs the thai restaurant in my town knows me by name. he is one of the kindest and most thoughtful men i know. i started ordering from his place back in january, which was when i got my fibromyalgia diagnosis. back then i was using a walker, had limited mobility in my entire body but especially my hands, and was very visibly in pain. i always ordered the same thing: yellow curry with no meat, potatoes and carrots only (i have texture and other dietary issues). he always made it a point to make sure i could get out the door and carry the food safely. he had his workers package the food so that it was easier for me to open. as i kept coming back and i told him a little bit about my health status, he would always encourage me to keep going. he told me about how the spices he used were good for inflammation and began to edit the recipe just for me so that spices that were even better for fighting inflammation were used. he’d give me extra portions and despite the fact that i would tip every time, i realized later that he never charged my card for them. as time went on and my condition began to get better, he would make encouraging remarks and tell me how happy he was for me. the day i came in without my walker, he practically jumped for joy, and despite my insistence, he gave me my meal for free that day. i continue to make progress with my conditions and i continue to go to the thai place. this man who does not know me personally and who i hardly know anything about is one of my favorite people. it’s interactions with humans like these that make loving life easier. and his curry really does help my chronic condition. it’s comfort food taken to the next level.
I love how the notes for this are just chock full of examples of the most batshit specific things people research for their fanfics. Truly a treasure trove.
