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thavron · 6 months

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So I think I've cracked this moment.

So this moment has bothered me. I've seen several people say this is Crowley breaking up with Aziraphale, but I think it has a different meaning. I think he's saying, "I understand."

Hear me out.

It was actually listening to the song Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy that caused me to have a little epiphany. I love how it's juxtaposed over Crowley rushing back to Aziraphale, indicating that he is the Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, but there is more to it.

That song was released in 1976, which is a time when being gay or being queer of any kind was deeply frowned upon. Though laws in the UK banning same sex relationships had been lifted by this time, for consenting adults over the age of 21. Freddie explicitly coming out at this time was something that could have ended his career. Freddie danced with the media on this one, hinted but was never forthright and kept his romantic life largely under wraps. This is something that queer people did in general and had to do well into the 90s. They flirted in code, they romanced behind closed doors. They kept their love out of sight.

Much like our Ineffable Husbands.

Editing to add- that the reason this triggered something for me, is that despite the secrecy, Freddie Mercury got up on stage and sang a song about a man taking another man out on a date at the Ritz. Everyone knew. Just no one knew knew. And it wasn't enough to end his career. Much like our Ineffable Husbands. Everyone knows, including them. Just no one says a thing about it.

Which brings me back to A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.

This song is about one magical night. A couple meet, fall in love, feel the magic of their romance, and then as the sun comes up they go home. It is something like a dream that has to be let go with the harsh light of day. But there is hope, because sometimes they can hear the echo of the nightingale. A promise perhaps to meet again.

So I think it is widely assumed that there is more to the 1941 flashback. I tend to concur. I think we will see the origin of why this song is important to them. I suspect the song is about them. They have one magical night, where they are both brave and express their love for each other. But then the sun comes up and they realise that they have to go back to their lives. I think they will acknowledge that the incident with the zombies was a close call, and they need to cool off and stay away from each other. Slow down.

So 1967 is the first time they have seen each other since. They both know how they feel, they're just waiting for the right time. They shouldn't have met at all, except Aziraphale wants to give Crowley the holy water. I think that explains the awkwardness but also their softness toward each other. It's a meeting of lovers, but the time isn't right just yet. No nightingales are singing. That's what Aziraphale means by "You go too fast for me." Not yet, it's too soon. We're still under suspicion.

So the end of season one, the world is not over and our ineffable husbands are free. What do they do? They go for date at the Ritz. You can not tell me this is not a date. Sorry, don't believe you. "The Ritz is the most romantic hotel in the world." It's like their whole selling point. It's why it pops up in the lyrics of Berkley Square, and also in the lyrics of Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy. It's the place where magic happens. And for me, the playing of the song, and the reference from God herself, it's saying the time is right. They can finally be together again. This is their moment.

So Season Two. I've read reviews of season two where people liken it to fanfiction. Neil calls it is a bridge season. I think it's the dream. Not actually a dream, I don't think Neil is that unoriginal. But in the song they liken that one magical night to a dream. It's a fantasy that they get to live until the sun comes up. They get to live their dream for four years. They are together and they are in love but they are still living in secret. They still don't acknowledge it. They're still holding back. One of the themes in this series is timing is everything. Maggie and Nina's relationship doesn't work because timing. The magic trick worked the time it mattered. Timing is important, and the ineffable husbands are bad at it. They should have thrown themselves into this but they were too cautious and they missed their chance.

I think this conversation is when Crowley realises. Not that he is love with Aziraphale, that was established in 1941. But that everyone knows anyway. There is no reason to hide. No one cares that they're an item. Aziraphale has a similar epiphany after his chat with Shax. So they both decide to move the relationship along, but damn do they have bad timing.

Now I am as confused and heart broken as anyone about the final fifteen. And I am certain that there is something that we are not seeing, a trick that we've missed. There are six minutes unaccounted for. Neil says its a continuity error, but he's demon, he lies.

So here is what I think, and why this line "that's the point, no nightingales" is important. At some point during that conversation Crowley catches on. Whether they have a moment of stopped time, or the fact that Aziraphale is acting so utterly unhinged, there is something that happens that we don't see and it clues him in. He is hurt and angry yes, but he understands. What he is understanding is that the dawn came stealing up, and that the interlude is over. The nightingales stopped singing, and they have to go back to work. He gets it and that's how he lets Aziraphale know.

"You're an idiot, we could have been us." He doesn't like the plan, whatever it is. He thinks running would have been preferable, but he is resigned to it.

Then that kiss. One last goodbye just in case the world ends? Desperate longing and years of pent up frustration? I don't think the trick is here. I think this is misdirection. We're all looking at the kiss, we missed the coded message that came right before. I think "No nightingales" may also suggest that this isn't the kiss. The romantic kiss will come later, when the nightingales sing again. And they will, of that I'm certain now.

The song playing in the car, a message from Aziraphale or from the Bentley reminding him to have hope. Two things we know about Crowley. He is an optimist. He loves to rescue his angel. We also know that he is the trusted stooge with the steady hand. Aziraphale will perform the theatrics, he will do the rest. The fact that he waited and didn't just storm off like he did when he was rejected in series 1 tells Aziraphale that he is still here. He's still in this.

That's my interpretation anyway.

#good omens #good omens meta #yup i have way too much time on my hands #and i hate unhappy endings #and will live in denial about this

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afeelgoodblog · 1 year

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🦜 - Why did the parrot learn to video call? Because he wanted to see his tweetheart!

The Best News of Last Week - May 2, 2023

1. Engineers develop water filtration system that permanently removes 'forever chemicals'

Engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a filtration system that would permanently remove "forever chemicals" from drinking water. This news comes after a recent study revealed nearly 200 million Americans have been exposed to PFAS in their tap water. Dr. Madjid Mohseni, a professor at British Columbia, shares his research.

2. Berkeley diner provides free meals to anyone who's hungry, no questions asked

The Homemade Cafe in Berkeley, California, is giving away free breakfasts to anyone who is hungry, no questions asked. Owner Collin Doran's Everybody Eats Program started when he saw people panhandling outside his diner. Customers can add $5 to their bill to help the program or grab a coupon for a free meal. Doran's act of kindness has resulted in a 15% increase in business, and he hopes that more businesses will follow his lead in making the world a better place.

3. Pope Francis gives women right to vote in bishops’ meeting for first time

Pope Francis has decided to give women the right to vote at an upcoming meeting of bishops, an unprecedented change that reflects his hopes to give women greater decision-making responsibilities.

Francis approved changes to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that gathers the world’s bishops together for periodic meetings, following decades of demands by women to have the right to vote.

4. US adult cigarette smoking rate hits new all-time low

U.S. cigarette smoking dropped to another all-time low last year, with 1 in 9 adults saying they were current smokers, according to government survey data released Thursday. Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer, heart disease and stroke, and it’s long been considered the leading cause of preventable death. In the mid-1960s, 42% of U.S. adults were smokers. The rate has been gradually dropping for decades, due to cigarette taxes, tobacco product price hikes, smoking bans and changes in the social acceptability of lighting up in public.

Last year, the percentage of adult smokers dropped to about 11%, down from about 12.5% in 2020 and 2021.

5. Scientists taught pet parrots to video call each other - and the birds loved it

When humans are feeling lonely, we can call or video chat with friends and family who live far away. The idea for this study was not random: In the wild, parrots tend to live in large flocks. But when kept in captivity, such as in people’s homes as pets, these social birds are often on their own. Feeling bored and isolated, they may develop psychological issues and can even resort to self-harming tendencies like plucking out their feathers. New research suggests that these chatty creatures may also benefit from virtually connecting with their peers.

Domesticated parrots that learned to initiate video chats with other pet parrots had a variety of positive experiences, such as learning new skills. The parrots that learned to initiate video chats with other pet parrots had a variety of positive experiences, such as learning new skills including flying, foraging and how to make new sounds. Some parrots showed their toys to each other.

I wanted to see this experiment so bad, so here’s a video from the paywalled study. I uploaded it on my youtube channel.

6. World’s First Carbon Import Tax Approved by EU Lawmakers

The European Union’s parliament approved legislation to tax imports based on the greenhouse gases emitted to make them, clearing the final hurdle before the plan becomes law and enshrines climate regulation in the rules of global trade for the first time.

Tuesday’s vote caps nearly two years of negotiations on the import tax, which aims to push economies around the world to put a price on carbon-dioxide emissions while shielding the EU’s manufacturers from countries that aren’t regulating emissions as strictly, or at all. The tax gives credit to countries that put a price on carbon, allowing importers of goods from those countries to deduct payments made for overseas emissions from the amount owed at the EU’s borders.

7. Genetic Driver of Anxiety Discovered

An international team of scientists has identified a gene in the brain responsible for anxiety symptoms and found that modifying the gene can reduce anxiety levels, offering a novel drug target for anxiety disorders. The discovery highlights a new pathway that regulates the brain’s response to stress and provides a potential therapeutic approach for anxiety disorders.

Critically, modification of the gene is shown to reduce anxiety levels, offering an exciting novel drug target for anxiety disorders.

That's a driver I'd like to uninstall.

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That's it for this week :)

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Also don’t forget to reblog

#best news of last week

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fathercharlesoffdensen · 6 months

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Sperm whales are giants of the deep, with healthy adults having no known predators. Scientists studying their vocalizations have already picked out key elements of their communication, namely clicks, sequences of which are called codas. Now, researchers led by Gašper Beuš from the University of California, Berkeley report the discovery that the acoustic properties of these clicks—for example, pitch—are “on many levels analogous to human vowels and diphthongs,” which is when one vowel sound morphs into another such as in the word “coin.” The researchers even identify two unique “coda vowels” that are “actively exchanged” in conversation between whales, which they term the a-vowel and i-vowel.

#nathan explosion #metalocalypse #dethklok #whales #andromeda #adult swim #brendan small #whale prophet #army of the doomstar

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jonquilyst · 18 days

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LAMONT BERKELEY for The Yasmine's Desire by @aniraklova

Age: Young Adult

Traits: Geek, Hot-Headed, Outgoing

Aspiration: Computer Whiz

Career: Software engineer/Tech Guru (he'll be unemployed in-game though)

Likes: Purple, Discussing Interests, Discussing Hobbies, Deep Thoughts, Programming, Electronica Music, Hip Hop Music, Funny Sims, Comedy, Spirited Sims, DJ Booth Music, Video Gaming, Cerebral Sims, Stories, Jokes, R&B Music, Hard-working Sims, Optimistic Sims

Dislikes: Tween Pop Music, Blues Music, Malicious Interactions, Arguments, Rascals, Potty Humor, Pranks, Deception, Pessimistic Sims, Ranch Music

Lamont is a classy guy from Evergreen Harbor who dedicates pretty much his entire time to technology. When he's not busy working as a software engineer, you can bet he's playing or developing video games. He likes all video games, but his favorite genre is science fiction. He loves anything sci-fi and if it's a game that expands or appeals to his scientific knowledge, he'll make sure he plays it. Being a video game enthusiast doesn't mean that Lamont doesn't just sit around in his apartment, however. He's actually a quite outgoing guy and loves a good party, especially if there's a DJ. He has no problem going up to someone and striking up a conversation, especially if they seem to like anything tech-related. However, his shortcoming stems from the fact that he's quick to anger. He loves good vibes and positivity, but he's pretty strict about it and it takes very little negativity to cross his line. While he may like jokes, only a certain type of humor appeals to him, as he hates pranks, mischief, and insults. He just doesn't understand the appeal of this type of humor, especially when others tell him "can't you take a joke?" Sorry, but he just doesn't like it. Lately, Lamont has been feeling that his life has been a little stagnant lately, so he wants to try and meet new people, but not just for a friend, but for a potential lover. So when he heard that a new show called "The Yasmine's Desire" was accepting auditions, Lamont couldn't help but throw his hat in the ring. Will Lamont be the one for Yasmine?

Private DL if chosen

#yasminesdesirebc #hope you like him!#he was just a sim i randomly made one day #since i don't have any more spares from my vinca legacy rn i decided to polish him up and submit him!

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btsqualityy · 1 year

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the jung’s fluff 🧡 ft. 4 yo mia

lennox and berk are having their daily bickering session at their parents house in the kitchen while mia plays in the living room with her granny

lennox: hey berk why didn’t you tell me you were starring in a movie?

berk: what the hell are you talking about?

lennox: you know, the movie with the witch on the poster? the makeup artists didn’t have much to work on i see. HA! 🤭

berk: …you know what?

lennox: what? you don’t have a comeba-

berk: mia!?

lennox: what are you doin-

mia comes toddling into the kitchen and sees her mommy (fake) pouting with her hands covering her eyes

mia: what’s wrong mommy? why you sad? 🥺

berk: mia uncle lenny called mommy ugly, and it made me really sad 😔

lennox: what!? you dirty-

mia gasps out loud and her big doe eyes shoots up at her uncle

mia: uncle lenny! that’s no nice. you have to be nice to mommy because she’s my mommy. you say sorry okay?

lennox: but mia she-

mia stomps her tiny foot for good measure

mia: say sorry and call mommy pwetty too!

lennox: mia i’ll apologize but it’s not nice to lie either!

berk: oh mia, im still so sad 😩

mia: granny! uncle lenny being mean to my mommy! 😠

lennox: AW HELL! mom! listen-

mama jung walks in and bites her lip to keep from laughing at her adorable granddaughter’s angry pout

mama jung: lennox blake, listen to your niece right now and apologize to your sister or you get a timeout. and call her pretty too 🤭

lennox: BUT- fine. berk. i’m sorry. and you’re pretty. 🙄

mia: you feel better now mommy? 🥺

berk: oh i feel so much better, thank you baby 🥰

lennox mumbles under his breath

lennox: using my own baby against me. i hate it here 😒

This is hilarious 😂if there’s one person that Lennox can’t deny, it’s Mia 🤣

#adult lennox #adult berkeley

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cartoonscientist · 6 months

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there are many savory and unbalanced dynamics inherent to magic bettyxnormal simon but today i'd like to bring your attention to the fact that even tho simon has been living post-apocalypse for like a millennium longer than betty she seems to be waaaay more comfortable functioning in ooo than him like as soon as she sets foot in the future

and like simon is a little wet kitten but we know he's canonically insecure and has at least some degree of toxic masculinity lead exposure but also canonically has a thing for powerful and assertive women and also apparently just wants to do a Berkeley Permafusion with her (this is when two adults with postgrad degrees enter a wool shawl together and never emerge)

#petrigrof

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kyistell · 5 months

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What kinda headcanons do you have for California

I didn't think the list was going to be as long as it is but once I started thinking more and more I couldn't stop lol

California-

Wet cat

He/They and no he won’t stop reminding you

Was very obsessed with shiny things, especially gold, when he was younger, now he’s only a “normal” amount of obsessed

Very pretty, like the definition, like if you look up the definition of pretty in the dictionary he comes up

Has an obscene amount of stim/fidget toys, squishies, the poke ones, even fidget spinners, they have them all

Worked at the Berkeley laboratory in the 90s, specifically Berkeley’s element hunting team

Used to be obsessed with Creepypastas, however is now obsessed with cryptids (“They aren’t the same thing shut up *state name here*” has been said a lot)

Will slip into a southern accent without warning, has given multiple southern states heart attacks because of this on more than 10 occasions

Loves to write, especially fanfiction, however there is no way they would EVER willingly show anyone these, they did once when he was drunk but New York never mentioned it and Cali did not remember

Loves Stardew Valley and Minecraft, will play them both for hours without realizing

Has absolutely horrible time management, as well as their general perception of time is also atrocious

Loves podcasts, tends to listen to them more than YouTube videos

The times that Jersey dragged him to Action Park ended with hospital stays and praying that the doctors wouldn’t notice that he should definitely be dead

Been watching Smosh since it first started

Disney adult and proud

He started streaming on Twitch during the pandemic, occasionally being joined by Jersey, Nevada, or York, Florida joined stream once and has since been banned

Don’t listen to what York says, he definitely knows how to cook (re: he has no idea what they are doing in the kitchen without help)

Knows a handful of languages but only fully knows English and Spanish, though he can read and understand Russian, they just can’t speak it

Was forced to wear a dress once by Nevada and that’s how they realized he wasn’t fully male

He doesn’t actually mind feminine pronouns, just prefers He/They

Has a ridiculously long skincare routine, at least 2 hours at night and an hour in the morning

Used to be attached at the hip with Washington and Oregon, they are all still close in a similar but not as much way like the NE are

They and New Mexico go out with Arizona once every few weeks to different areas of their respective states, occasionally Texas will join

Cali and Texas aren’t related, they were both raised at one point by Mexico at the same time sure but they aren’t related

Loves to learn about different cultures, especially Asian cultures

Didn’t hate crowds until the pandemic, now can’t stand them

His room is extremely cluttered and disorganized, can’t even be considered organized chaos, their working on it (York had a stern talk with them about it)

They actually do understand Football, he just doesn’t like the sport all too much

Feel like this is obvious but he is a HUGE nerd, like a bigger nerd than New York not that Cali knows that of course

#welcome to the table #wttt #wttt california #wttsh california #wttt headcanons #now this is the longest one #haha oops #i dont even read stuff for cali wtf #wttt new jersey #wttt new york #kyi requests

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 5 months

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By: Ron E. Hassner

Published: Dec 5, 2023

When college students who sympathize with Palestinians chant “From the river to the sea,” do they know what they’re talking about? I hired a survey firm to poll 250 students from a variety of backgrounds across the U.S. Most said they supported the chant, some enthusiastically so (32.8%) and others to a lesser extent (53.2%).

But only 47% of the students who embrace the slogan were able to name the river and the sea. Some of the alternative answers were the Nile and the Euphrates, the Caribbean, the Dead Sea (which is a lake) and the Atlantic. Less than a quarter of these students knew who Yasser Arafat was (12 of them, or more than 10%, thought he was the first prime minister of Israel). Asked in what decade Israelis and Palestinians had signed the Oslo Accords, more than a quarter of the chant’s supporters claimed that no such peace agreements had ever been signed. There’s no shame in being ignorant, unless one is screaming for the extermination of millions.

Would learning basic political facts about the conflict moderate students’ opinions? A Latino engineering student from a southern university reported “definitely” supporting “from the river to the sea” because “Palestinians and Israelis should live in two separate countries, side by side.” Shown on a map of the region that a Palestinian state would stretch from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, leaving no room for Israel, he downgraded his enthusiasm for the mantra to “probably not.” Of the 80 students who saw the map, 75% similarly changed their view.

An art student from a liberal arts college in New England “probably” supported the slogan because “Palestinians and Israelis should live together in one state.” But when informed of recent polls in which most Palestinians and Israelis rejected the one-state solution, this student lost his enthusiasm. So did 41% of students in that group.

A third group of students claimed the chant called for a Palestine to replace Israel. Sixty percent of those students reduced their support for the slogan when they learned it would entail the subjugation, expulsion or annihilation of seven million Jewish and two million Arab Israelis. Yet another 14% of students reconsidered their stance when they read that many American Jews considered the chant to be threatening, even racist. (This argument had a weaker effect on students who self-identified as progressive, despite their alleged sensitivity to offensive speech.)

In all, after learning a handful of basic facts about the Middle East, 67.8% of students went from supporting “from the river to sea” to rejecting the mantra. These students had never seen a map of the Mideast and knew little about the region’s geography, history or demography. Those who hope to encourage extremism depend on the political ignorance of their audiences. It is time for good teachers to join the fray and combat bias with education.

Mr. Hassner is a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Just like Xians who've never read the bible, but believe it's all true. Worse, these people only discovered it as young adults at university, where they were lied to by activists masquerading as intellectuals, in an institution which charges five-figures for the privilege.

Paying people to lie to you is the domain of religion, not higher education.

#Ron E. Hassner #from the river to the sea #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #palestine will be free #palestine #israel #ignorance #two state solution #indoctrination #religious indoctrination #woke indoctrination #defund gender studies #defund palestine studies #religion is a mental illness

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beardedmrbean · 3 months

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It was an unusual protest, even by the standards of a city that has experienced hundreds of them over the decades.

A Leap Day demonstration this past Thursday at the shipping container wall around People’s Park in Berkeley continued a tradition of using leap year’s extra day for protest. But in addition to the usual banners, chants and music accompaniment from a small marching band, there were… slingshots.

Organizers from the Slingshot Collective launched seed bombs — solid dirt balls filled with seeds — over the double-stacked shipping containers and into the now-former park using slingshots, both store bought and homemade.

“People go to a lot of boring protests, and this is an alternative and we are protesting real issues,” volunteer James Palmer said during the event. The Slingshot Collective has hosted a Leap Day protest every four years since 2000, according to Palmer.

The Leap Day protest began at the corner of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, with demonstrators marching to Chase bank to protest their climate policies and support for the “Cop City” development in Atlanta, Georgia, before making their way to the perimeter of what was formerly known as People’s Park.

“With the shipping containers, obviously we can’t push them over, we can’t get over them,” Palmer said. “We wanted to figure out a way to express our displeasure, not only at what’s happening, but at the ridiculous overreaction of building a wall like this.”

“We wanted to figure out a way to express our displeasure, not only at what’s happening, but at the ridiculous overreaction of building a wall like this.” James Palmer, protester

A recent Berkeleyside report that found UC Berkley spent upwards of $4.4 million dollars on security at the site, “…which is like a crazy overreaction to basically a small number of Berkeley hippies,” according to Palmer.

“We are the people who they’re worried about, the people that they’re trying to keep out, and we’re not dangerous,” Palmer said.

Protesters like Elisa Smith are hopeful that the community that centered around People’s Park will find a new home.

“The park, it’s all ages, all colors, all genders, all economic backgrounds, all together and that kind of breaking of bread that can happened in common space — it’s something magical at the park,” Smith said. “These days it’s like a real lucky thing to have a place where we’re all together, just all walks of life.”

Although the protest was peaceful, community members who did not appear to be present for the march to the location began spray painting shipping containers as the event came to a close. No arrests were made, but officers took photos and video of at least two adults and one child using spray paint on the containers.

#nunyas news #we need more affordable housing #no not there somewhere it doesn't inconvenience me

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jakeluppin · 5 months

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A long but good read on antisemitism at universities and what could/should be done on campuses. Really good, especially for those of us in academia. Full article below, but a few highlights I wanted to share:

Many students today have little exposure to ideological diversity on campus, and most agree on most politically fraught topics, such as abortion or transgender rights, said Eitan Hersh, a professor of political science at Tufts University. Since issues in the Middle East are so divisive, even among groups that otherwise tend to align politically, students don’t know how to talk about them. They are “not equipped to know how to deal with that,” Hersh said.

“Students have been entirely left alone to sort this out for themselves with zero institutional support, with zero attempts to organize any kind of rational discussion or conversation about the issue,” [Tyler Austin Harper, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Bates College] said. “It’s not a big surprise that they’re floundering when adults have been too cowardly to do their jobs.”

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator asked [Jared Levy, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Texas at Austin] how he could defend Israel. “I sat there in the rain for an hour and a half talking to students about why I supported Israel,” Levy said. He talked about the importance of a Jewish homeland, about his conviction that Hamas was a terrorist organization, and that Israel had made mistakes but had a right to defend itself. Some of the students with the pro- Palestinian group, he said, didn’t understand what Hamas was and had just been told by friends or social media that Israel was committing genocide and was an apartheid state.

“A lot of students have been eager to engage in dialogue and weren’t just here to yell in my face,” Levy said. At the local Hillel, a Jewish campus-life organization with chapters on many campuses, he said they’ve discussed organizing a “neutral- ground dialogue.” But despite Levy’s success in engaging with students one on one, he doesn’t feel the campus is ready for group discussions. “We came to the conclusion that things need to cool down first,” he said.

A Jewish student’s nose is broken in a melee sparked by attempts to burn an Israeli flag. Messages declaring “Glory to our Martyrs” and “Divestment From Zionist Genocide Now” are projected onto the façade of a campus building. Jewish students huddle inside a campus library while protesters shouting “Free Palestine” bang on the glass walls.

With each new headline and video snippet that goes viral, the pressure on colleges to respond forcefully and quickly to incidents of antisemitism is building. So too is the pressure to resist calls from politicians, donors, and alumni to crack down on protesters in ways that stifle protected speech.

College leaders, who’ve been lambasted over the past few months for failing to tackle antisemitism with the same ardor they’ve confronted other forms of prejudice and hate, are having to make quick judgment calls under the harsh glare of the national spotlight and the war between Israel and Hamas.

The questions are complicated, and backlash is certain. What counts as antisemitism? How can campuses help Jewish students feel safe? And perhaps of greatest consequence for colleges, where is the line between protected speech and prohibited harassment, and how should students who cross it be disciplined?

College leaders today “face tremendous pressures from competing groups of students, faculty, alumni, and administrators,” said Ethan Katz, associate professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of California at Berkeley, one of several universities facing lawsuits over alleged antisemitism. “The number and intensity of those pressures is pretty widely underestimated by the public.”

The Chronicle spoke with more than 20 scholars, free-speech experts, faculty members, and students — all of whom echoed a similar message: Battling antisemitism is one of the most pressing challenges facing campus leaders today, and it is also one of the most difficult.

Many colleges have taken a typically academic approach to the situation, forming or expanding task forces on antisemitism, and often, Islamophobia. To protect students who feel threatened, these groups have proposed tightening security, clarifying reporting procedures, and improving mental-health supports. They’re examining speech codes and student-conduct policies to ensure they’re being applied evenly and fairly. The task forces themselves are proving controversial, especially when it comes to who should be appointed to them.

When campus leaders are called on to intervene in a dispute, the terrain can turn treacherous. If they discipline pro-Palestinian protesters over chants many consider antisemitic, they’re accused of trampling free-speech rights. If they defend the right to demonstrate, they’re accused of failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitism. Impartial stances are attacked as weak, sparking debates about whether campus leaders should comment at all.

In Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox has made it clear he doesn’t want the leaders of public colleges speaking out about the Israel-Hamas war, or any other current events. “I do not care what your position is on Israel and Palestine. I don’t,” he said on December 1 after the Utah Board of Higher Education passed a resolution requiring colleges and their leaders to remain neutral on such topics. The board also called on colleges to spell out the protections and limitations of their speech policies.

Punishing protesters has only stoked anger on some campuses. When the president of George Washington University, Ellen M. Granberg, denounced pro-Palestinian messages projected onto the library in late October as antisemitic and the university suspended the group responsible, Students for Justice in Palestine, demonstrators formed a new coalition. Declaring that “the student movement won’t be silenced,” they marched to the president’s home.

Tightening restrictions on when and where students could protest has often resulted in even rowdier clashes. At the entrance to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, known as Lobby 7, pro-Palestinian protesters went ahead with a demonstration in November even after the area was left off a list of approved sites that the administration released the night before the planned event. Students clashed, some were suspended, and outrage followed.

In early December, that anger erupted on the national stage, when three university presidents testifying before a House congressional hearing on antisemitism appeared to waffle on a question about whether students should be punished for calling for the genocide of Jewish people. The backlash led to the resignation of one of the presidents, the University of Pennsylvania’s Elizabeth Magill, and was a factor in the resignation of another, Harvard University’s Claudine Gay.

Nationally, colleges have been accused of doing too little, too late. Between October 7 — when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostage — and December 7, the Anti-Defamation League recorded more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents in the United States, compared with 465 during that period in 2022. At the same time, the free-expression group PEN America points out that there’s been a significant uptick in harassment of Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. Students have reported being called terrorists and having hijabs pulled off. Some politicians, including former President Donald J. Trump, have called for international students to forfeit their visas for participating in pro-Palestinian rallies. Three Palestinian American students were shot and injured — one seriously — on November 25 in Burlington, Vt., during their Thanksgiving break.

Pressure is building on colleges, and it’s coming from both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans have seized on rising antisemitism as evidence that the culture of higher education has dangerously liberal leanings. They’ve accused colleges of more aggressively enforcing speech and harassment codes when Black or Hispanic students accuse people of being racist and looking the other way when hateful, or even violent, speech is hurled at Jewish students.

More than two dozen colleges are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education over complaints of antisemitism or Islamophobia. The vast majority of the investigations began after the October 7 Hamas attacks. The Education Department reminded colleges in November of their legal obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to “take immediate and appropriate action to respond to harassment that creates a hostile environment.” That extends to discrimination against people based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including Jewish, Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students.

Students complaining of antisemitism have sued several universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California system and its Berkeley campus, New York University, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Eyal Yakoby, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania who spoke at a news conference before the House hearing, is one of two students who sued his university, calling it an “incubation lab for virulent anti-Jewish hatred, harassment, and discrimination.” The lawsuit contends that Jewish students have been subjected to antisemitic chants, slurs, and graffiti, including a spray-painted swastika in an academic building.

Yakoby says the university has ignored his complaints, while aggressively disciplining those who harass other minority groups. “When it comes to the protection of Penn’s Jewish students,” the lawsuit states, “the rules do not apply.”

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union joined a pro-Palestinian group in suing Florida higher-education officials and Gov. Ron DeSantis after the Republican governor ordered public colleges in the state to “deactivate” campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, and Chancellor Ray Rodrigues of the State University System of Florida conveyed that message to system presidents. That order, the plaintiffs said, violated the First Amendment.

Threats are also coming from state politicians, including Democrats. On December 9, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said in a letter that a call for genocide made on a public-college campus would violate state and federal law, as well as codes of conduct. Colleges that failed to discipline students for engaging in such behavior, she wrote, would face “aggressive enforcement action.”

To Jeffrey Melnick, an American-studies professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston whose research interests include Black-Jewish relations, reports of antisemitism have turned into a “moral panic”: They have roots in a real situation but have been heightened out of fear. Colleges need to carefully distinguish, he says, between true instances of antisemitism and those he believes shouldn’t be considered antisemitism, such as chanting “Intifada revolution.”

If phrases like that make Jewish students uncomfortable, colleges need to help them understand their history and what they mean to the Palestinian movement, said Melnick, who is Jewish.

“Our main job as university instructors is ‘teaching the conflicts,’” he said. “You don’t shy away from them. You say: ‘This is complicated. A lot of people feel really invested in this, and now we need to kind of drill down and figure out what it all means.’”

While antisemitism needs to be confronted, Melnick said, the “panic” is distracting from the continuing violence in Gaza as well as other forms of hate on campuses. When college presidents are called on to condemn antisemitism and “no questions are asked” about how they’re handling Islamophobia, he said, “that silence speaks really loudly to me.”

Kenneth S. Stern, now director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, in 2004 drafted what became known as the “working definition” of antisemitism as a way to help data collectors identify trends in such incidents. Stern identifies antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” He goes on to say, “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The definition also provides examples of antisemitic acts, including “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination,” “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis,” and “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”

Though other definitions of antisemitism exist, Stern’s is one of the most widely accepted, having been adopted by the U.S. Department of State and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. In 2019 then-President Trump required all federal agencies, including the Education Department, to use Stern’s definition when assessing violations to Title VI.

The move drew widespread criticism, especially from Stern, who considered it an attack on free speech. Using the definition in Title VI enforcement has a “chilling effect” on administrators, who may try to over-correct speech violations out of fear of being sued, he told The Chronicle.

Such controversies have surfaced repeatedly in recent months. Chants like “Globalize the Intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” have become staples of pro-Palestinian protests.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, demanded a yes or no answer during the House hearing in December about whether calling for genocide — which she’d earlier equated with such pro-Palestinian chants — would warrant discipline. None of the presidents pointed out that the meanings of those phrases, and whether or not they’re antisemitic, are contested. The impression they left in those deer-in- the-headlights moments, when they all insisted that context was important, was that they wouldn’t immediately condemn actual, explicit calls for the elimination of the Jewish people.

Many Jews and their supporters do see the chants as calling for violence, the destruction of Israel, and the genocide of Jewish people across the world. But to many of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including students, the calls are for the liberation of Palestinians and the return of land they believe belongs to them.

Problems arise when definitions of antisemitism, such as Stern’s, are used as speech codes, said Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free-speech advocacy group. Many of the examples listed under Stern’s definition are protected speech under the First Amendment, as are pro-Palestinian chants, even some cases when one calls for “horrific acts, including genocide.” Other acts, especially ones that are true threats or incitements to violence, go beyond the bounds of the First Amendment, Creeley said.

“To impose a blanket ban on certain sentiments or phrases,” he added, “would imperil a great deal of constitutionally protected expression.”

In an initial hearing on antisemitism, in November, House Republicans spent much of the time blasting campus offices of diversity, equity, and inclusion, accusing them of dividing students and fomenting hatred, especially against Jewish students. Some argued that such offices actually encourage anti-Jewish sentiments by dividing groups of people into oppressors and oppressed and failing to see Jews, whom many regard as relatively privileged white people, as among those oppressed. In the second hearing, with the college presidents, Republican representatives repeatedly raised questions about whether Harvard was disciplining students for racist acts but not antisemitic ones.

A recent article on Jewish Insider.com described deep rifts within the current and former leadership of prominent Jewish communal organizations about whether campus diversity offices can be partners in combating antisemitism. Two former longtime heads of the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee argued that those offices and the infrastructure they support only worsen problems for Jews. Leaders of those organizations have recently urged members to work with diversity offices to better incorporate Jewish concerns into the DEI structure.

Meanwhile, lawmakers have taken advantage of the spotlight on antisemitism to intensify attacks on campus diversity offices. U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas, introduced a bill in December that would strip federal funding for any university that requires students to write diversity statements, blaming them for the spread of antisemitism on college campuses.

“Make no mistake — the DEI bureaucracy is directly responsible for a toxic campus culture that separates everyone into oppressor vs. oppressed,” he said in a news release announcing the legislation, which also bans diversity statements as a condition of employment.

Paulette Granberry Russell, president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, calls such critiques “an orchestrated attempt to discredit and dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in higher education.” She added that “these attempts by individuals, well-funded organizations, and legislators who have leveled such criticisms and misrepresentations stand in opposition to higher education’s efforts to create more diverse and inclusive campuses and experiences for all students.”

Many diversity offices, Granberry Russell said, provide opportunities for cross- cultural dialogues and encourage students from various racial and cultural groups to collaborate on community-service and other projects.

Georgina Dodge, vice president for diversity and inclusion at the University of Maryland at College Park, said her office is working closely with a task force on antisemitism and Islamophobia created in November at the main campus in College Park.

“Within our department, we have a unit dedicated to supporting any member of our community who has experienced hate or bias, which includes antisemitism,” Dodge wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “This has been a key element of our work for years, and recent events have only underscored the importance of this kind of care on our campuses.”

Granberry Russell agrees. “What is evident today is that there is much more work ahead,” she wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “But to ignore the work, and the evidence-based research that informs the work, of offices specifically designed to respond to the needs of a diverse campus, and to conclude that such offices” contribute to antisemitism is “ill-informed and short-sighted.”

Some, however, question whether diversity offices are equipped to handle the complexities of antisemitism and Islamophobia, especially at a time when their work is under siege from right-wing groups that have succeeded in getting many banned.

“Antisemitism doesn’t fit with what is generally DEI’s focus today — on structural issues of equity and inclusion,” said Berkeley’s Katz, who’s also faculty director for the UC flagship’s Center for Jewish Studies. In 2019, he co-founded the university’s Antisemitism Education Initiative, which has worked closely with campus groups, including the university’s DEI office, to educate people about the roots and different forms of anti-Jewish bias and hatred. That kind of close cooperation with diversity offices, he said, is somewhat of a rarity across higher education, as well as corporations.

“It’s clearly very difficult for DEI professionals to figure out what to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Katz said. “When attacks are coming from white nationalists shouting ‘Jews will not replace us,’” in Charlottesville, Va., “it’s much easier to wrap your head around it and get on board.” But when the hostile language is coming from the left, and the terminology is disputed, the connections to hatred and exclusion might be harder for diversity officers to grasp without additional training and education, Katz said.

Colleges have failed to help students navigate “one of the most complicated geopolitical issues in the 21st century,” said Tyler Austin Harper, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Bates College who frequently writes about issues involving politics, culture, and race.

Part of an administrator’s job is encouraging open debate about complicated topics, he said. Rather than censoring student speech, colleges should be encouraging faculty members to model how to have conversations with people who disagree with them.

“Students have been entirely left alone to sort this out for themselves with zero institutional support, with zero attempts to organize any kind of rational discussion or conversation about the issue,” Harper said. “It’s not a big surprise that they’re floundering when adults have been too cowardly to do their jobs.”

That’s assuming that students are ready to have those conversations. “A lot of campuses are struggling with what to do now,” said Todd Green, director of campus partnerships at Interfaith America, which works to promote greater understanding among people of different religious backgrounds. “Do you try to bring students together now, or wait?”

In a different time, his group might have suggested bringing people from different faiths together in a room to try to find some common ground. To many, though, the issues at a time of daily bloodshed are too fraught, the emotions too raw. People from opposite sides may be shouting at each other, but there’s little talking, Green said.

Interfaith America, he added, “isn’t traditionally a crisis-response group. But we’re in the midst of a crisis that, in my years of higher education, is the most tense it’s ever been on campuses — even compared with post 9/11. In this moment, it’s very difficult to bring students together to try to build relationships.”

Some students, like Jared Levy, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Texas at Austin, are doing their best to connect. Levy went to a Jewish boarding school in New York City, where his parents are both rabbis. In November, hundreds of UT students walked out of class to join in a large pro-Palestinian demonstration. Levy, with an Israeli flag pinned on his backpack, noticed a small group of Jewish students standing quietly off to the side. “People are being very cautious. You don’t want to be the next student to get punched in the face,” Levy said, referring to an incident at Tulane University where a Jewish student was smacked with a megaphone during a tussle over an Israeli flag.

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator asked him how he could defend Israel. “I sat there in the rain for an hour and a half talking to students about why I supported Israel,” Levy said. He talked about the importance of a Jewish homeland, about his conviction that Hamas was a terrorist organization, and that Israel had made mistakes but had a right to defend itself. Some of the students with the pro- Palestinian group, he said, didn’t understand what Hamas was and had just been told by friends or social media that Israel was committing genocide and was an apartheid state.

Other students, like Katie Halushka, a Jewish senior at George Washington University, also wouldn’t be comfortable participating in an open forum or other type of civil discourse. While she hasn’t felt threatened much on campus, even after Students for Justice in Palestine projected messages on a campus building, she’s still tried to avoid talking about the war out of fear that it could permanently sever some of her relationships.

“It’s been sort of a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ situation,” Halushka said. “If you say anything, someone will be upset with you.”

A popular move among college administrators has been to establish advisory groups to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia. They are typically made up of faculty members, experts, and sometimes students.

Most of the groups, often called task forces, lack the authority to make changes or respond directly to incident reports, but they meet multiple times a week to evaluate campus policies and climate.

Following its creation in early November, Columbia University’s 15-person Task Force on Antisemitism first met in full in mid-December. Columbia has been one of the most tumultuous campuses in recent months, with several tense rallies, dueling faculty statements, and clashes between students. It’s one of the colleges under investigation by the Department of Education for incidents of alleged antisemitism and Islamophobia. The university also banned two pro-Palestinian groups — Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace — saying the groups held “unauthorized” events that included “threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” The following week, 400 students and 200 faculty members protested the suspensions.

One of the group’s main goals is to evaluate the university’s policies on free speech and demonstrations, said Nicholas Lemann, a co-chair of the task force. When Columbia suspended the student groups, many on campus were unclear whether it was on the grounds of an existing campus policy or if the administration had created a new one. Once the group understands the specifics of the policies, Lemann said, they’ll recommend how to revise them.

He also hopes the group can study the root cause of discomfort among Jewish students, evaluate where antisemitism is present in classrooms, and include lessons on antisemitism in orientation programs for incoming freshmen.

“This is not an easy moment at our campus and many other campuses,” Lemann said. “But I do think that our charge from the president and the way we have been working so far makes me optimistic that we can produce something useful.”

Some task forces have had a rockier start, though. Ari Kelman recently resigned as co-chair of a Stanford University subcommittee on antisemitism, bias, and communication, after some controversy about his writings on the difficulties of defining antisemitism.

David Wolpe, a rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, arrived at Harvard University’s Divinity School as a visiting scholar planning to do research and teach a class on Jewish spirituality. But since October 7, combating antisemitism has become his “full-time job.”

Amid a whirlwind of complaints over her response to the war and a highly publicized statement from a coalition of student groups solely blaming Israel for “all unfolding violence,” Gay, who was then Harvard’s president, called Wolpe asking for help. She was “clearly shaken,” Wolpe said, and he agreed to join a new advisory panel to help her respond to antisemitism on campus.

Wolpe’s inbox has since been filled with reports of antisemitism at Harvard, and he’s spent much of his time talking with administrators, donors, and alumni about the problem. But following Gay’s testimony during the House hearing this month, Wolpe met a breaking point. In a now-viral X thread, he announced his resignation from the panel.

While Wolpe anticipated that the university would make changes to campus, he said it wasn’t moving fast enough to discipline students, define antisemitism, enforce current regulations, or begin “serious education about Judaism and antisemitism.” Gay’s testimony was the final straw. “I saw what was going on as a five-alarm fire,” Wolpe said. “The way it was being treated was a sort of slow- burning flame.”

The focus, he said, should be on creating civil discourse and communication. Many campuses have become “screaming echo-chambers” where students find it impossible to have a conversation with someone whose view is different from their own, he said.

“If you can’t model civil discourse at Harvard University, where do you expect it?” Wolpe said.

There’s no sign that the political, cultural, and legal pressures on colleges over their handling of antisemitism will let up anytime soon. In addition to investigating the responses to antisemitism at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce has set up an email address to report antisemitism on college campuses.

Wealthy donors will continue to flex their muscle, and faculty groups will continue to push back. The president of the American Association of University Professors, Irene Mulvey, issued a statement on December 12 saying that universities are obliged to protect both student safety and free expression. “We must not allow partisan actors to exploit this moment to demand further control over university curriculum and policy in order to shape American higher education to a political agenda,” she wrote.

Student protests continued to reverberate as the semester came to a close. Many of the demonstrators’ tactics have become increasingly disruptive — sit-ins, occupying buildings past normal hours of operation, and directly targeting campus programs and partnerships with Israel.

Colleges have ramped up their consequences as well. On December 11, 41 Brown University students were arrested after holding a pro-Palestinian sit-in at a university building and refusing to leave before 6 p.m. The next day, Rutgers University suspended a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine on its New Brunswick campus for “disrupting classes, a program, meals, and students studying” and “allegations of vandalism,” according to a letter an administrator sent the organization. The student group accused the university of applying a “racist double standard” and attempting to silence Palestinian voices. Rutgers is the first public college to suspend the group.

As war continues to rage in the Gaza Strip, those who are pleading for a free exchange on campus of even sharply divergent opinions worry it may never come. Melnick, the professor from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, said that despite his “annoyingly optimistic” nature, he’s never seen the campus climate as grim as it has been over the past few months. And, with no easy solutions, some fear the turmoil could deepen in the new year.

An incident at Syracuse University in December underscored just how fraught things have become. Even a seemingly innocuous event — in this case an advertised study session before finals — can become a flashpoint. Students were gathered in the student center on December 14, three days after the university’s chancellor had released a statement saying that calling for the genocide of any group of people would violate the university’s conduct code. One student had taped a flier to her laptop that read “globalize the Intifada.” Some students complained they felt threatened. A campus administrator asked the student to remove it and she refused, a video posted on Instagram showed. The administrator told her the word called for genocide, and constituted harassment. She told him the word meant uprising and did not call for genocide.

A campus spokeswoman said other students had similar fliers that they were told to put away in their notebooks or book bags and that when they didn’t, they were told such refusal violated the student-conduct code. It’ll be up to the university’s Community Standards office to determine what, if any, punishment they’ll face.

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hyperfixationsporfavor · 1 year

Text

I Left My Heart in San Fransisco

I Left My Heart in San Francisco (Higuruma x Reader)

My love waits there in San Francisco…

Hiromi Higuruma considered himself a professional, a man dedicated to his work. That dedication was most likely the cause of his nonexistent social life. Something Shimizu, his associate, felt comfortable enough pointing out to him.

“When’s the last time you went out? Just to see a movie? Have a nice dinner?”

Hiromi just ignored her questioning and took a sip of his coffee.

After a barrage of incessant pestering from Shimizu the two of them took a small break at Takagi’s cafe, which was conveniently empty in the middle of the afternoon.

Takagi was his former coworker from his first job out of law school. The fact that she had to work another job on the side proved that the pay in criminal law was abhorrent.

The words of his law professors at Nagoya University rang true.

Criminal law was for the bleeding hearts who didn’t let money drive them, but the passion for the legal profession.

That was all well and good but Hiromi still would have liked to own a home in his lifetime.

Takagi approached the table with a couple of muffins, on the house for her fellow attorneys.

“Leave him alone Shimizu, this time next week he’ll be smooching his college sweetheart in the City by the Bay,” she mused as she sat down next to her.

“(Name) and I weren’t in a relationship, we were friends.”

“With benefits?”

“Shimizu, you’re embarrassing him,” Takagi scolded.

“What? We’re all adults here. It’s not like we’re talking about holding hands on the playground.”

Hiromi just clenched his jaw. “No. And if we’re just going to waste time prying into my personal life I don't see why we can’t go back to the office and get some work done.”

He reached down to grab his briefcase before his associate stopped him.

“Wait,” Shimizu protested. “I’m sorry. I was just curious. I didn’t mean to step out of line.”

Hiromi relented and picked up his muffin.

“It’s fine.”

“Either way,” Takagi chimed in. “It’ll be good for you to get away and relax.”

“It couldn’t come at a worse time. I have a million things to do at work,” he mumbled. “Maybe I should just cancel.”

“Absolutely not. It’s just a weekend. I can handle our caseload until you get back,” Shimizu assured him.

“But-”

“No buts, you're going and that’s final,” Takagi ordered.

Hiromi had met you when he was a student at UC Berkeley. He had been fortunate enough to receive an opportunity to study abroad the last two and a half years of his undergraduate studies.

You had bumped into each other at a mixer for pre law majors.

He admired you.

How you held yourself in class, never backing down from a challenge, always passionately engaged. Hiromi was a bit more reserved, yet the two of you connected like opposite poles.

You were good for him and he was good for you.

You forced him to put the books away and take periodic breaks, frequenting the local 7-Eleven with enough regularity that you were on a first name basis with every employee. He was able to reign you in when you flew off the handle, passion being easily misinterpreted as hot headedness.

On one occasion a spat with a chauvinistic legacy student, during a mock trial, led to you lunging over the bench to give him a black eye. Thankfully Hiromi was able to ensnare his arm around your waist before you got yourself expelled.

“Guys like that just…oof…they make me so…fuck,” you vented over your usual Big Gulp.

He just nodded and snacked on his Snickers Bar.

Hiromi liked you, maybe he liked you more than he let on but he squashed that possibility like a miniscule ant under his thumb.

He didn’t want to ruin his friendship with you by having some brief fling the two of you could grow to regret.

The logistics were a nightmare anyway, there was an entire ocean separating the both of you. He’d eventually have to go back to home and the two of you would further your studies, start practicing law, and continue the never ending cycle of human life.

You had invited Hiromi to San Francisco for a weekend. You were tired of being relegated to emails and wanted to have a proper reunion.

‘I’d like to see you in person. It’s been too long, Hiromi.’

“Sir?”

A voice woke Hiromi up from his catatonic sleep. He looked up to find a flight attendant standing above him.

“We’ll be arriving soon,” she informed him.

He nodded. “Thank you.”

Had he really slept the whole flight?

What did he expect after pulling so many all nighters? And how did he still feel so tired?

Hiromi rolled his suitcase out of the airport at around 6 pm. He followed the directions you gave him to the parking garage and spotted you in the loading zone. You stepped out of a polished BMW, dressed up in a well tailored pants suit. He was slightly taken aback, you looked so…sophisticated. You hurriedly sprinted over to him and practically tackled him to the ground in a bone shattering hug.

“I can’t believe you’re really here,” you exclaimed.

He indulged himself by hugging you back. You were still the same (Name) in some ways.

You pulled away and took his hands in yours.

“How are you Hiromi?” you asked.

“Jetlagged,” he mused. “You look good.”

You smiled. “So do you.”

“Liar,” he playfully retorted.

“So where to?” you asked as you sped through the city.

Hiromi gazed out the window at the scenery whizzing past him.

Memories from the occasional day trips the two of you would take here flooding back to him.

He loved the old homes, the hole in the wall restaurants, the water, the breeze that snuck through your clothes, the seagulls and pigeons that pestered you for bread.

“I’d honestly like to relax a little if that’s okay,” he said despite the guilt he held.

He was always working so the idea of not working was a concept he was unfamiliar with. But he wanted to try and ease himself into doing nothing and allow himself to rest.

“So nothing touristy,” you confirmed.

“Definitely not.”

You smirked. “Fight it all you want but before this weekend is over I’m going to get a picture of you in front of the Golden Gate Bridge wearing an ‘I heart SF’ shirt.”

That got a laugh out of him. He felt embarrassed to laugh out loud sometimes but just for the next few days he’d indulge himself.

You lived in a small yellow house sandwiched between a Mexican bakery and an ugly gentrified apartment building.

The inside of your home had old creaky wooden floors and mauve walls that complemented the antique furniture. You had decorated with nick knacks and trinkets you had collected through your travels. It was so homely compared to Hiromi’s apartment that still had furniture unassembled in boxes.

“Obviously the floors are a bit annoying and it gets a little cold in the winter, but it’s home.”

Hiromi peered around. “I think it’s wonderful.”

“Are you hungry?” you asked.

A little,” he admitted. “I slept through the in flight meal.”

“Should we order in or are you up for going out?”

He thought it over. “I’d prefer to order in but if you want to go out I could manage it.”

“We’ll stay in,” you decided.

“Okay.”

You went to the kitchen to retrieve the take out menus you had stored away in a drawer.

“Burmese or Italian?” you asked.

Over a feast of both Burmese and Italian food you and Hiromi caught up.

“So how did you find this place? Didn’t your parents live by the pier?” he asked.

You nodded. “Yeah but a few years ago their building was bought by this development firm so they had no choice but to relocate to Sacramento.”

“I’m sorry (Name).”

“It’s sad but it’s just a reality of what’s been happening here.”

“The apartment next door?”

You scoffed. “Isn’t it hideous? If you're going to force people out of their homes to build housing for rich people can you at least make it pretty?”

Hiromi nodded in agreement.

“Anyway, to answer your question one of my mother’s friends wanted to move to Oakland to be closer to her son’s family, so they worked out a deal for the rent and I was able to move in. Thank god because I’d never be able to find a place nowadays.”

“And this place is close to the nonprofit you volunteer at?” he asked.

“It’s just down the road, mostly pro bono work for low income families. I’d like to do more but my day job keeps me pretty busy.”

Hiromi finished the last of his beer. “But you like the work?”

You smiled. “I love it.”

He pondered that sentiment trying to apply it to himself.

The next day the two of you got up early to make the most of your brief time together. Hiromi secretly wished he could have stayed longer, even if he knew a weekend away from work was already pushing it.

After filling up on coffee, the two of you walked across the street to an old record store tucked away behind a former Blockbuster.

“It’s sad they went out of business,” you sighed. “Many times we rented that same copy of Dumb and Dumber from there.”

“I hated that movie then and I hate it now,” Hiromi mumbled.

You smirked and leaned against a box of old cassettes. “Well we can’t all be as intellectual as Hiromi Higuruma. What was your favorite movie again? The Graduate?”

He smiled despite himself. “Please, I was in my early twenties. That movie is tailor made for people that age.”

Hiromi stopped combing through a stack of old records and ironically pulled out Sounds of Silence.

You gasped. “That’s a sign. You need to buy that.”

“To play on my imaginary record player.”

Despite the record having no practical function in his apartment he bought it with little resistance.

After the record store you drove to a cafe to pick up sandwiches and clam chowder. Once you had secured your food you went to the beach to have a picnic. You laid out the old quilt you brought from home and settled down for a feast.

“This is so good,” Hiromi groaned. “I forgot how amazing the food is here.”

“Surely you have your favorite local spots back home?”

He sighed. “I don’t really go out much. I pretty much live off the convenience store on my street.”

“Well I know you told me you like to take on harder cases, but why not give yourself a break?”

“I am,” he argued. “I am, I’m taking a break right now.”

You rolled your eyes. “Hiromi, a weekend with jetlag doesn’t count. You need a real vacation.”

“I don’t know what it is about me. I just get so…obsessed.”

You set your sandwich down. “Okay look. How about we make a deal?”

“What?” he suspiciously asked.

“You can take on one more, excruciating, difficult, sleep depriving case, and then you have to start to cut back.”

“What do I get in return?” he asked between bites.

“A lap dance from me.”

He nearly choked on his sandwich as you broke out into a fit of laughter.

“(Name) are you trying to kill me?” he managed to get out.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Once you had calmed down you presented him with your real offer.

“We’ll go on a real vacation.”

“Where,” he asked.

“What’s the one place in the world you’ve always wanted to go?”

He thought for a moment. One place he always wanted to go.

“Iceland.”

“Interesting,” you mused. “Why Iceland?”

“I’d like to see the Northern Lights.”

You nodded. “Then that’s where we’ll go.”

“(Name) I can’t just drop everything and-.”

“Don’t get in an argument with me Hiromi, you know who’s going to win.”

He relented and tossed the remaining crust of his sandwich to a nearby seagull.

“Deal.”

To celebrate his final day in town you promised Hiromi a home cooked meal.

“We’ll go to the market later, but since it’s still early let’s go to the bakery next door and get some pan dulce.”

While you paid for your order Hiromi looked through a small box of wooden bracelets by the register.

“What are these?” he asked.

“Saint bracelets,” you answered. “It’s a Catholic thing.”

You plucked one out of the box and handed it to the cashier.

“No, I don’t need one,” he argued.

“It’s a souvenir. It’ll go with your new record.”

“Is it supposed to be so…crunchy?”

You wrinkled your nose at the final product.

You had planned to have risotto but your combined culinary skills led you to create a big pile of crap.

“I’m sorry,” he sighed. I added way too much salt to it.”

You tried to smother your laughter.

“It was an honest mistake, at least we still have the wine.”

You got an idea.

“I have crackers, let's just get some meat and cheese and make a charcuterie board.”

The two of you lounged on the couch. Hiromi’s cab would arrive soon to take him to the airport. By this time tomorrow he’d be back in his small apartment staring at a record he couldn’t listen to and a bracelet from a religion he didn’t practice.

“Do you want a family Hiromi?” you asked.

He thought for a moment. “I don’t think so. I don’t have the time. What about you?”

“I’d like to get married someday, but I don’t want kids. Does that make me a bad person?”

“Of course not.”

“Can you tell my parents that?”

He chuckled.

“I don’t know,” he mumbled. “Sometimes I feel like I’m missing something but then that feeling goes away.”

“We’re getting older, do you think we’re just settling?” you asked.

“No. I think we’re just doing what we want. The thing that gets us out of bed every morning.”

He sighed.

“(Name)?”

You looked at him. “Yes?”

“I really want to go to Iceland with you.”

You smiled. “It’s a deal.”

The cabdriver stuffed Hiromi’s suitcase into the trunk of the car and slammed it shut. He stood in front of your house giving it one last look before he left.

“Hiromi?” you asked.

He looked at you, taking note of how you anxiously crossed your arms in front of your chest.

“Yes?”

You bit your lip and looked up to meet his eyes.

“Why…didn’t you ever ask me out back then?”

His breath hitched.

“I…”

“Why not even for a night?”

He swallowed his fear and dared to speak the truth.

“I didn’t want to say goodbye.”

You took a step forward, closing the gap between you.

“Well then don’t say goodbye, say I’ll see you next time.”

He reached up and shakily cupped your face in his hands.

You kissed, your lips meshed perfectly with one another, two lost souls reunited in a single moment.

Hiromi pulled away and wrapped you in his arms.

“I’ll see you next time.”

You surrendered him from your grip and he got in the cab, giving you a final wave.

The cab sped off into the night, he watched you until you got smaller and smaller, and just like that you were gone.

(Several months later)

Reykyavík was a beautiful city, but not as beautiful as you.

Hiromi held your naked body tightly against his, unwilling to let you go. You cradled his face trying to etch every little detail into your memory, every line and crevice.

Neither of you wanted to forget a moment of this. You intended to make the most out of your two week stay in Iceland, even if it meant you never left your hotel room.

You sighed in relief as Hiromi’s calloused hand caressed your hip.

“So what should we do today?” you murmured.

He pressed his lips against yours for the umpteenth time that morning.

“This,” he mumbled. “Just this.”

My love waits there in San Francisco…

The End.

#higuruma hiromi #higuruma x reader #jjk fanfic #jjk x reader #oneshot #hyperfixationsporfavor

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rainbowdelicsunshine · 27 days

Note

Whatever aU first comes to mind upon reading this for the 5 hcs game! :DD

As you probably predicted, I'm choosing to talk about my OceanBerry AU (aka my Chucky AU/Retelling of the Chucky TL)!

1. You remember the three human friends that Chucky is buddies with that I've talked about in this post long ago?

Well I FINALLY have found some live action faceclaims for them!! (Please don't take the IRL ages of these actors into account since I only need them to demonstrate appearance)

Here they are!

(Left to Right)

Don Rivers: Bruce Willis (as David Dunn in Glass)

Zach Galifianakis: Jerry Hickens (as Ethan Chase in Due Date) (and w only a bushy mustache)

Blake Anderson: Bob Berkeley (as Blake in Workaholics)

2. I have also found live action faceclaims for Glen's boyfriend Kahuna and Glenda's girlfriend Natalie (OCs of mine) as well!

And same as the first time, real ages of the actors does not factor in choosing them as a faceclaim, only appearance is!

(Left to Right)

Kahuna Mahelona: Jason Scott Lee (as Mowgli in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994) (add on hair/bangs that covers his eyes + slightly more muscular)

Natalie Winchester: Kim Director (as Kim Diamond in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2) (have hair dye at the ends of her hair instead of being streaks in her hair)

3. Chucky and Eddie are in the midst of attempting to reconcile and reestablish their adoptive brotherhood (since before the Big Incident in 1988, Chucky and Eddie regarded each other as brothers)

They still have a LOT of sour feelings on each other's ends for their own respective reasons (Chucky for being abandoned when he needed his little brother the most and Eddie for literally being blown tf up)

Eddie is still much more resentful than Chucky since Chucky started to feel more thankful towards Eddie as time went on with having his family, Eddie tends to be a lot more snappier and grumpier around Chucky but is still able to tolerate him and even sometimes have a good bonding moment like they used to

Chucky on the other hand just acts like how an asshole big brother would to their little brother, just messing with them in stupid ways like how they used to do as kids/young adults

4. If anyone ever wanted to know what John/Dr. Death does in his free time/where he lives in the Ray house, he basically just keeps to himself in the attic of the house studying and practicing his magic and spirituality

He does come down to other parts of the house on occasion and regularly interacts with the Rays (but talks to and hangs out with Eddie the most), since he acts as the family's advisor/guide the kids and Chucky tend to go to him in the attic a lot since he tends to have knowledge they need

The state of Chucky and John's friendship is still... Icy but is much better than it was before!

I also HC that they were childhood friends as well, thus that being how Chucky found him to teach him Magic and Soul Bending/Shifting (what I'm calling the spell/s where Chucky would transfer souls and such) and Soulmancy (what I'm replacing the Voodoo with cuz yall know why)

If you are unfamiliar with John Bishop and his role in OceanBerry, here is this post!

His Appearance/Info

5. The Rays do, in fact, have a dog that acts as a family companion and guard dog that keeps the house and the kids safe (in Chucky's words) that they all got as a puppy when the youngest (my Chiffany fankid Buddy) was around 9 years old

The dog is a 4 year old medium sized but very muscular German Shepherd/Pitbull Mix that's dubly named King Ghidorah, very vicious, strong and protective of his property and family when need be, but is most of the time a giant sweetheart that likes to think he's a lapdog

Fun fact: King Ghidorah was given to The Rays by Chucky's friend Jerry when he had found the pup in a box of "free puppies" that was stationed in front of the Walmart that's in Hackensack and decided that a puppy from that box would've made a GREAT birthday gift for Buddy

Ofc, since Buddy was a 9 year old, he LOVED it! King Ghidorah is now closest/bonds the most with Buddy, Chucky, and June/Junior all in that order (though Ghidorah loves EVERYONE)!

-----------------------------------------------------

HOLY SHIT THIS TOOK FOREVER MY GOD!!!!!!

I am soso sorry that this took SO LONG for me to post this, it took a lotta time to come up with all this info for you, let alone type it all out lol!

I hope that the wait was well worth it and that you let me in on your feedback on this my dear lovely friend!

I hope that you enjoy reading all this and have a fantastic evening!!

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thenativetank · 10 months

Text

Native Fish Hunting - Interlude

As a little break from adult life, the wife and I took a vacation to Berkeley Springs, WV for the better part of a week. While the town is best known for its warm spring water that runs at 74F year round, I was most excited about another unique aspect of the town. But more on that below.

The first place I stopped at to fish was the river above. We sadly did not have a lot of time to spend here as we had a spa appointment to make, though I was able to catch a handful of these minnows in a few spots. I have iNaturalist looking it over now, though I'm leaning towards Common Shiners (Luxilus cornutus). Not pictured/caught but witnessed in this river were Green Sunfish and a Sucker of some sort (Northern Hog Sucker?).

A few species of snails in this river too. Without seeing the bodies, I'm mostly just guessing on ID, but the top I think is Elimia virginica and the bottom is Bithynia tentaculata (a non-native, sadly).

I also found some hydrilla here, which is a huge bummer. I had initially thought it was our native Anacharis, which would have been a huge find, but looking over pictures at home confirmed it as the invasive look-alike species. Bummer.

This one was a new find for me - Stonewort is a kind of algae native to Europe and Asia which got transplanted over here, as with the hydrilla. What I did find cool about it is how stiff the "fronds" actually are, unlike most green algaes I've seen, which lose form when removed from the water.

But now for the fun part - the warm springs! There are two species I caught here...

First were a handful of our native Eastern Blacknose Daces (Rhinichthys atratulus), a pleasant species which can be found in our neck of the woods too, just isn't super common. You're much more likely to find Creek Chubs where I am, whereas here this was the only minnow species in this stream as far as I can tell.

However, what I came here specifically for - Guppies (Poecilia reticulata)! A native of Trinidad, this species thrives here because of the warm springs, a feat it could not replicate in neighboring states. I saw many varieties living here - long tails, iridescent blues and oranges, platinums... I even heard swordtail Guppies could be found here, though I could not verify.

Multiple color varieties existed here in the same body of water. I don't know how much of this was natural selection and how much were purposeful introductions, but the population lives and breeds here year round. One thing I did find interesting is that there were no Mosquitofish here in this spring. Does the town keep them out? Do Guppies outcompete Gambusia in these conditions? I have no idea!

#fishblr #fishcommunity #nanf #native fish #fish hunts #native fish hunts

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mysticninetalis · 1 year

Text

My Star Trek HeadCanons

Hiya! I just had a lot of head-canon's running around in my head so I just wanted to share a few! These are an amalgamation of things grabbed from Memory Alpha/Beta, as well as what I just like to think are implications of happenings that took places in these character’s lives. I also have a more adult list for more sexy and/or serious HC’s (if you wanna see those)

~~~~~~

Jim Kirk

Certified genius, by both Human and Vulcan standards

Very ADHD

Loves to dances, especially as a kid

This man has freckles everywhere

Had a pet mini-cow named Pickles

Graduated highschool at 16

Got his Masters in Xeno-linguistics and Engineering from UC Berkeley & MIT respectively, by the age of 21

Lover of old 20th/21st music ( think the Beasty Boys, Nickelback, Red Hot Chili Peppers, FFDP, Lil’ John, Dr. Dre, 2Pac, ect.)

He purposely fucks with Bones by singing “Get Low” anytime the joke call for it ‘cause he know the old Grumpus hates it

Has a cow plushie that he has kept to this day, it was his dad’s.

Loves himself a good Pina Colada

Is honestly a huge bookworm (his guilty pleasure is dirty novels lol)

loves to cuddle (especially with Bones or Galia)

allergic to most fruits and flowers (including a lot of aliens fruits. Also strawberries, which sucks because he loves them), as well as most nuts

He’s such a sucker for gelato, but Bones restricts how much he has :(

A very loving and open pansexual

Loves to wear all kinds of clothing, especially a good dress every now and then

Met Sulu in his 2nd year because he joined the fencing club

Took Chekov under his wing and they were study buddies

Spock

Has a stuffed Sehlat names Muffins that Sybok gave him when he was 2

Queer as shit

Follower of the “Talk Shit, Get Hit” way of life

Followed Sybok & Micheal everywhere (even sneaking out with whenever they did during the older sibling’s shenanigans)

Always got carried by his “scruff” by I-Chaya whenever he was getting into things he wasn’t supposed to

His answer to everything when in trouble was “Following one’s curiosity is logical, it is how one learns” (his made Amanda always laugh and Sarek question his life)

Has a tattoo of the vulcan G’teth bush & Induku tree wrapped in Terran roses on his left shoulder (an homage to his family’s humanity and vulcan culture) as well as the mark of the Khas-wan wrapped along his left bicep.

He has a few ear piercings and actually likes ear jewelry (it is one of his few illogical indulges)

Is a avid poetry reader

Mastered the art of Suus Manha around the age of 10

He very much understands human colloquialisms and metaphors, he just acts like he doesn't to fuck with people.

During the customary show-and-tell every child has after their Khas-wan, Spock brought the pelt of a young Le-Matya he had killed, because it was only logical to tell in detail how he survived to his classmates (and rub it in Stonn’s face)

Totally has a secret love for ABBA (and disco in general), Reggaeton, American Country music, and dancing of many terran verities thanks to his mother and her side of the family (including but not limited to knowing how to whine, the tango, the waltz, and southern line dancing)

Dyslexic as shit, but learned to overcome it thanks to his mama

Such a Mama’s boy, will beat of anyone who talks shit about Amanda, including adults when he was a child

cried for days when Sybok was sent off planet, and again when Micheal left, and no one was able to comfort him besides Muffins

Leonard Horatio “Bones” McCoy

The gentlest person alive under all that bluster

Half-Hispanic on his Mama’s side

Makes tamales during the christmas holidays

The galaxies #1 Daddy, he has a mug that says so

Was in charge of hair day when they lived together because he was the parent that braided the most efficiently (plus it kept his hands very dexterous for work)

Knits Joanna sweaters (he also crocheted her a stuffed Tinkadink because it was her favorite Pokemon and like the fact that it hits other pokemon out of the sky)

Wore a pretty floral white and lavender sundress dress to Daddy-Daughter day because when Joanna was in 3rd grade she wanted to try out some “boy” clothing but was worried her friends would think she was weird

Loves Country music (especially Mark Twain, Morgan Wallen, and Dolly Parton)

He’s also a metal-head

Always lets Joanna dress him whenever they visit, they also paint each others nail

Almost tore Joanna’s 5th grade teacher a new one because some little twat kept bullying her about her hair

Applied to the VSA with an amazing transcript and medical journals to his name and was denied for some bullshit reason, which is why he’s salty about Vulcans

Discovered he was Bi at a young are because he saw an interview of Ambassador Sarek holo and thought he was real pretty

Graduated highschool at 16, got his MD and PHD is Psychology by 21 and finished his residency at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta

Married Jocelyn Treadway at 19, and had Joanna at 22

Makes time for the gym even if his week is hellish (both when he was in school, as well as at work), has very much a well built dad-bod with a big chest and thighs

Was the captain of his high school track team

Danced competitively all throughout his childhood (mainly traditional hispanic cultural dances and was in a more contemporary crew throughout high school and college when he had the time)

Was a exotic dancer starting at 18 to pay for college, which is also where he met Jocelyn

He also took Chekov under his wing and would given anyone who made comments about the whiz kid a patented McCoy glare and just the best passive aggressive bedside manner whenever they were under his care

Wears his Daddy’s Saint Raphael necklace that has Joanna’s birthstone

Nyota Uhura

Secretly loves those cheesy rom-com holovids

a pansexual Queen

A woman who lived by the motto “Gaslight, Girlboss, Gatekeep”

Hated when Kirk and Galia would always cuddle in their dorm room, but eased up one night when she heard Kirk singing a Orion lullaby to a sleeping Galia.

While she puts her career first, she is a very maternal person at heart and loves to babysit whenever Joanna would visit the Academy/Enterprise

oddly enough, shes an amazing impressionist

Beginning halfway through her second year (Kirk’s first), Kirk started to randomly talk to her Vulcan, than Klingon and slowly it turning into an ongoing competition to see who between the two of them know more languages

Loves to do Yoga as well as leaned how to traditional Orion dance from Galia as a form of exercise

Found out after a night of drinking with their friend group that Leonard knew how to poll dance and asked him for lessons whenever their schedules lined up, it be came a bi-monthly thing for them

Always gets her family cute little odds-and-ends for their birthday, as well as a card that says how much she loves them in different languages rotating every year

Shares Spock’s love for earrings and will get him a new pair for his birthday

During the bi-annual talent show, she and Spock usually did an act together

One year it was a tie between her Spock, and Jim & Galia’s dance act

Her, Hendorf, CHristine and Leonard have a once a month girl’s night where they meet in Nyota & Galia’s dorm and talk shit

When she heard that Gary Mitchell spread rumors about Jim being a whore, she did everything in her power to make that man’s life miserable

Sometimes the odd person will make a misogynistic/racist comment about her or her appearance, and miraculously Jim and the person who said it willinup at Medical with Leonard being extra mean to said misogynist (and if Spock hears anything while he’s out wither her, they’ll get the verbal ass whooping of their lives as well as a demerit in their file)

#star trek #my headcanons #jim kirk #leonard mccoy #spock #nyota uhura #i love these idiots #academy era #cupcake

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