Not By Her Beauty But The Loneliness In Her Eyes

favorite presidential kid? probably alice roosevelt.

-her mother died two days after she was born and on the same day her maternal grandmother also died. teddy was so sad that he left his newborn daughter with his sister anna for two years and could never bring himself to say his wife’s name so alice who was named after her mother had to be called “lee”, her middle name.

-when teddy remarried, alice’s stepmom edith made it clear that she thought alice’s mom had been beautiful but dumb. when alice’s parents couldn’t handle her anymore, they sent her to her aunt anna’s. according to alice, “If auntie Bye had been a man, she would have been president”. alice claimed to feel one-sixth as loved as her five half-siblings.

-then alice got polio which at the time could kill, not to mention cripple. her stepmom put her through an uncompromising regimen of nightly forced wearing of torturous leg braces and shoes, which left alice with no trace of the disability and able to run up stairs and touch her nose with her toe well into her 80s.

-alice’s dad and stepmom tried to send her to a conservative girls’ school but alice wrote home, “If you send me I will humiliate you. I will do something that will shame you. I tell you I will”.

-when teddy became president in 1901, alice became an instant celebrity and fashion icon at age 17. she did scandalous things like smoking cigarettes in public, riding in cars with men, staying out late partying, keeping a pet snake (called emily spinach) in the white house, and placing bets with a bookie. 

-she even had a color - alice blue - and a song - alice blue gown - named after her. the press called her princess alice.

-during an imperial cruise to japan, alice jumped into a pool fully dressed and coaxed a congressman in to join her.

-one time a white house visitor commented on alice’s frequent interruptions in the oval office, usually with political advice. after the third interruption, teddy explained, “I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both”.

-in february 1906, alice married congressman nicholas longworth and was the social event of the season. it was attended by more than a thousand guests and thousands gathered outside hoping for a glance of princess alice. she wore a blue wedding dress and cut the wedding cake with a sword.

-alice publicly supported her dad’s 1912 presidential candidate while her husband supported president taft. alice appeared on stage in her husband’s own district with her dad’s vp candidate. longworth lost by 105 votes and alice joked that she was worth at least 100 votes (meaning she was the reason he lost).

-alice’s campaign against her husband caused a friction in their marriage and longworth was known to be carrying on many affairs. it was also generally accepted knowledge in dc that alice had a long, ongoing affair with senator william borah, who by alice’s own admission was the father of her daughter, paulina. alice had a wicked sense of humor and had initially wanted to name her daughter deborah (as in de Borah).

-after the death of her daughter paulina in 1957, alice fought for and won custody of her granddaughter joanna. 

-in the 1950s, alice’s health began to fail her and she broke a hip. she also discovered she was suffering from breast cancer and had to have two mastectomies. in 1960, alice was diagnosed with emphysema. 

-alice was also a champion of rights for african-americans. one day, in 1965, alice’s african-american chauffeur and good friend, turner, was driving her to an appointment. turner pulled out in front of a taxi and the driver yelled at him, “What do you think you’re doing, you black bastard?” turner stayed calm but alice told the taxi driver, “He’s taking me to my destination, you white son of a bitch!”

-after many years of ill health, alice died of emphysema and pneumonia at age 96, outliving all five of her younger half-siblings.

-her most famous quote was, “If you haven’t got anything good to say about anybody, come sit next to me”. 

-when senator joseph mccarthy joked at a party, “Here’s my blind date. I am going to call you Alice”, she replied, “Senator McCarthy, you are not going to call me Alice. The trashman and the policeman on my block call me Alice, but you may not”. 

-she told president lyndon b. johnson that she wore wide-brimmed hats so he couldn’t kiss her.

-when a kkk member dressed in full costume asked her to trust his word, she said, “I never trust a man under sheets”.

so in summary, alice roosevelt longworth was badass.

this is her:

here’s little alice

more of teen/young adult alice

alice with her daughter paulina

alice as a grand old lady

What Teddy Roosevelt said was “I can do one of two things, I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.”

She was 19. She got absolutely no more chill. But man, her dad actually fucking got shot in the chest at a speech and was like “Hold up assassin, I’mma let you finish but America is the greatest country of all time and every man deserves a living wage”  so, like whatcha expect?

Seriously though, Teddy Roosevelt was a son of a bitch in a lot of ways but he’s the reason we have national parks and a minimum wage. I went to the Smithsonian about 10 years ago and the have audio recordings of him talking about how every man should be able to work a full week at a living wage and be able to care for his family and not live in poverty 100 years ago and hand to god i wept that we’re still having that same fucking fight. 

marvel: ‘infinity war is the most ambitious crossover event in history’ 

me:

It’s true! Especially given a) the technology they had at the time to pull this off, and b) that they had characters from TWO separate companies as opposed to different characters from the same comics publisher.

So yeah, Roger Rabbit wins the ambitious crossover award, hands down. Sorry Marvel.

The agreement with Disney and Warner Bros was that they could only use their biggest characters (Mickey and Donald, Bugs and Daffy) if the other corrosponding character had the exact same amount of screentime. This is why, in the movie, Bugs and Mickey are sharing scenes, and Daffy and Donald are sharing scenes.

It’s also worth mentioning that every single animator in the industry that wasn’t already working on something was called in to work on this film. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

take a look at this crowd shot

that’s nuts! It’s also a legitimately great movie, a noir comedy that ties in the actual history of Los Angeles alongside the history of animation comfortably alongside the gratuitous silliness. And Bob Hoskins is a fucking CHAMP for his acting in this, one of the earlier examples of green-screen acting with characters who mostly aren’t there and he can make you totally forget that he can’t see what’s happening a lot of the time.

Bob Hoskins is also a fucking champ because what he could see was Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit) delivering lines off-camera dressed like this:

This was his work environment.

A casual reminder that this was LONG before inter-company crossovers became a thing. The very idea of Bugs and Mickey officially sharing screen time was UNTHINKABLE in the 80s. And then throw in Betty Boop, Droopy Dog, Woody Woodpecker, and Felix the Cat, all from different studios/rightsholders? Yowza. (If only King Features had let them put Popeye in.)

scantily is basically the most classic way to be clad

This is iron clad erasure

I need to live long enough for the opportunity to say "the iron in which your argument is clad is scanty"

waittttt evanescence and mcr doing a show together……. has anyone told ebony dark’ness dementia raven way

Everyone reblog this. Mandatory.

Same

survey question time

Assume that your magic membership would let you and your friends go there (as long as you're with them) for free and works for any location within the chosen category (unless you pick that last one, in which case your membership is only valid for that one location).

(This is partially true honestly, because a lot of museums participate in reciprocity programs as a travel benefit so you can use your museum membership to get free or significantly reduced admission in museums out of town.)

I know there’s an existing post somewhere, but here’s the list of OBGYNs in the USA and other countries that will perform tubal ligation (aka female sterilization) without arguing with you

Holy fucking shit of all the possibilities I did not see that one coming.

X

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BE MAD BE SAD BUT DONT U DARE GIVE UP

Hey since we're in the 20s again can we bring back heavy eyeliner for all genders please. Those silent film guys knew what was what

Manifesting for 2025 everyone looking like they just got attacked by Theda Bara with a kohl pot

Sure, why not try superstition? Nothing else has worked so far.

pov you’re diagnosed with daddy issues by paris hilton

Sometimes classics can be improved upon.

The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries : an alternate ending for Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree by Topher Payne 💯🌳❤️

https://www.topherpayne.com/giving-tree?

The Good Ending

no such thing as wasting your 20s your 20s are for recovering from whatever the fuck happened to you as a kid so that youre ready to get weird with it in your 30s