Obliquely related story.
My wife was briefly an actor, and they were running The Cask. During one rehearsal, the guy playing Montresor was doing the brick laying, and he started going:
“One brick… ah, ah, aah!
Two bricks… ah, ah, aaah!”I don’t know if you had to be there, but I almost died laughing. Now I can’t read or see a reference to The Cask without thinking about that.
Threeee bricks… ah, ah, aaaah!
I have a newfound love for community theater.
I just saw The Little Mermaid musical at one last night.
For starters, Ursula was incredibly talented. If she was a slightly better dancer she’dve been on Broadway, but she sure as hell didn’t need Ariel’s voice. Not that Ariel wasn’t a talented singer. I guess the same could be said of the source material too though.
But then the costumes and props and even set designs were well done but obviously low-budget. Most of the sea life was on roller blades or heelys…they made no attempt to hide Flounder’s. Floatsam’s and Jetsam’s lit up.
Most the performers playing the daughters were in High School. Flounder’s was in middle school…which made his crush on Ariel all the cuter. And he was pretty talented, too.
But they didn’t take themselves to seriously. There was a seagull tapdance number led by Scuttle and I nearly pissed myself silent-laughing at the absurdity of it. Tritans crown fall off. There were two ensemble members in (off the shelf) sea turtle costumes that were totally phoning it in but they were absolutely my spirit animals. Like, I would love to be understudy to Second Sea Tortoise.
Just that these are all local real people who do this for fun, in addition to (most of them) having full-time jobs or being full-time students. That, to me, is pretty damn impressive.
Community theater is the best, although K-12 can be pretty fantastic, too.
Do you mean your wife was briefly an actress?
Depends on who you ask. Many people in acting prefer “actor” to be non-gendered.
If you’re anti-PC, then you probably prefer the gendered terms. In my wife’s case, she was a female actor, and I respect that. So, “actor.”
Thanks. I don’t know about that. I grew up learning traditional British English, and I live in a non-English speaking country.
No worries. I use “actresses” all the time, and “stewardess”, too, although I think nowadays you’re supposed to say “flight attendants”. The hard part is that some women actors want to be called “actors”, and some “actresses.” You never know.
In my story, it was “actor” because that’s what my wife wanted to use. It’s not a hard rule - it’s a difficult one, but not set in stone. It depends on the individual’s preference.
actor is being treated as a gender-neutral term describing both genders more recently.
For the love of God, Montresor!
Yes, for the love of God!
This was my first exposure to “laconic wit” that I remember as a kid, and I fell in love :)
Puts me in mind of this story by Poe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cask_of_Amontillado
I know that’s what the comic is referencing, but I prefer to imagine they’re giving him the Henry treatment
Ringo Starr: “And Henry would stay there, forever and for always. I think Henry got the punishment he deserved… Don’t you?”
Thomas the Tank Engine music plays as credits roll
Didn’t know Thomas the tank engine had sad endings
That was a pretty brutal ending. He didn’t get sympathy at all from those other trains.
Well, Edward would still peep “hello” at him, at least. But, yeah, Gordon just laughed and said “serves you right” when he passed.
You should watch Mike Flannigan’s horror anthologys on Netflix. There’s one dedicated to shoving as much Poe references as possible into it and it’s awesome.
The haunting of Hill House The haunting of Bly Manor Midnight mass And the fall of the house of usher.
The last one is the one that references Poe constantly
Idk seems like a stretch
Such a good story.
False flags are a real thing and hateful people often hide behind emphatic opposition of what they would rightly be criticized as being.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
– Vice President-Elect JD Vance.
(Translation: the false flags will continue until approval ratings improve.)
Literally in response to a rumor from Facebook that our now president-elect blew up to a national news story on live television. A rumor that was already debunked by the time he did so. Whether that was from malice or ignorance doesn’t matter, each one has its own terrifying end.
That will be the moment that defines the next 4 years (at least). Much like Kellyanne Conway telling Chuck Todd about Alternative Facts right after Trump’s first inauguration.
So these would be a false flag in which direction?
Well, let’s take the least controversial example from the comic: people “fighting against” destruction of the environment who are in fact fighting for it. Anti-littering, carbon footprint, personal responsibility focused environmentalism is known to have origins in corporate propaganda campaigns to draw focus away from their own role in the problem.
My objection to the message of the comic is, sometimes “what if these people portraying themselves as fighting against X are really supporters of X” is the truth and what needs to be said, rather than just someone being a contrarian smartass. Always ignoring and silencing this sort of sentiment without considering it makes you more vulnerable to manipulation.
To be fair, every horrible political movement starts with a bunch of angry people taking extreme measures against all those bad people.
