QUEEN of the NEIGHBORHOOD
Woah, Hillary Clinton is now on Twitter. Also, “pantsuit aficionado.”
And then there’s Sansa. Sansa Stark who named her deadly, killer direwolf Lady. And she trained her to be gentle, and quiet, and sweet and loving. And then what happens? The Baratheons have her killed. So now Sansa is so alone, having lost her family, her home and her Lady. But she is the exact opposite of what her father said would happen to wolves who end up alone. Ned Stark said that the only way they could survive was to stick together, and that was never an option. Robb had their mother. Rickon and Bran had Winterfell and then each other. Jon is on the wall, with his brothers, and then across it with Ygritte, then back to the wall. Arya had Gendry, and is still linked to Nymeria. But Sansa has absolutely no one who is her family. So she takes the strength and poise of a lady, and turns it into something as deadly and defensive as a direwolf’s fangs and claws. She knows that she is alone, and that no one is coming for her, so she adapts. She plays the game, she keeps her mouth shut, she stays alive.
Because the best way to hide a wolf, to keep people feeling safe, is to make them think it’s just a well trained dog.
"
On Sep 13, 1944, a princess from India lay dead at Dachau concentration camp. She had been tortured by the Nazis, then shot in the head. Her name was Noor Inayat Khan. The Germans knew her only as Nora Baker, a British spy who had gone into occupied France using the code name Madeline. She carried her transmitter from safe house to safe house with the Gestapo trailing her, providing communications for her Resistance unit.
Oh my God, yes. Let’s talk about Noor Inayat Khan.
- Wireless operators in France had a life expectancy of six weeks. Noor was actively transmitting for over three times as long.
- While she was in France, every other wireless operator in her network was slowly picked off until she was the last radio link between London and Paris. It was “the most dangerous and important post in France”.
- She was offered a way back to Britain and refused.
- In fact, in her transmissions to London, she once said that she was having the time of her life, and thanked them for giving her the opportunity to do this.
- She was captured by the Gestapo, but never gave up: she made three attempt escapes. One involved asking to take a bath, insisting on being allowed to close the door to preserve her modesty, and then clambering onto the roof of the Gestapo HQ in Paris.
- Her last word before being shot was, “Liberté!”
The term BAMF was coined for such persons.
Aubrey Plaza, An Oral History of UCB Theater Partying | Vulture
You and every other comedy nerd.
(via popculturebrain)
a playlist for mob wives and gangster molls~~[L I S T E N]
Me and my baby planning world domination
Together taking over our fair nation.
Complex Magazine released “The 25 Best Rap Verses of the Last 5 Years,” naming Nicki Minaj’s verse in Monster #1.
“It was clear, she did her thing alongside the best in the game—she stole the show, in fact, outshined them all.”
alternatively, too little time. ran out of steam towards the end. you can tell my faves, no problem.
as much as it grieves a girl, there are understandable reasons for a dearth of eleanor of aquitaine cinematic bios, namely that starting at the beginning and ending at the end would be A ROYAL MESS [pun? intended? whatever, if you know what’s up this blog isn’t a good one for wit anyway]
Dita Von Teese in her Von Follies lingerie collection
so i wanted to talk about why hanan al-shaykh’s adaptation of 1001 nights is the best adaptation i have read to date (and i’ve spent an entire year slogging through adaptations of this text so i think i can say that definitively). i think this post is going to be all over the place because i’m shaking with absolute joy with how respectful and wonderful and loving al-shaykh’s rendering of the characters in this story are. but before i do that i want to talk about the history of 1001 nights because i believe that a lot of the joy i found in the text is better understood when contextualized in its history.
HISTORY MEME - nine royals: empress theodora [4/9]
Theodora was empress of the Byzantine Empire and perhaps the most influential and powerful woman in its history. She worked as an actress, earning a living through a combination of theatrical and sexual skills. After traveling to North Africa as the companion of a Syrian official, she returned to Constantinople and worked as a wool spinner, and attracted the attention of the heir to the Byzantine throne, Justinian, who wanted to marry her. Though a law prohibited court officials from wedding actresses, the Emperor eventually repealed the law and Justinian and Theodora were wed. Theodora is famous for her role during the Nika Riots, proving herself a worthy and admirable leader. She spoke out against her husband’s wishes to flee the palace, claiming that it was better to die as an emperor than live on in fear and exile. She and Justinian rebuilt Constantinople after the riots, building more than twenty-five churches, including the Hagia Sophia. She participated in Justinian’s legal and spiritual reforms, and was especially involved in expanding the rights of women. She had laws passed to outlaw forced prostitution and exposure of unwanted infants, instituted the death penalty for rape, and had laws passed which expand the rights of women in divorce, property ownership, and guardianship rights over children. She died at the age of 48. (x)
