As someone who works with social history for a living, I feel like I’m the aggressive opposite of an anti-vaxxer

I fucking LOVE vaccines, friends. Give me the science stab. I’m so ready. it’s a beautiful day to not die of a Bajillion and one diseases that carried off like half the population before they had even reached age 10, and a significant portion before they made it to old age, 150 years ago

I go to the old cemetery. I see the vast numbers of infant and child and young adult graves. And then I go to my doctor and get injected with Potion of Fuck That Noise. This is beautiful and miraculous and I do not remotely understand how some people can reject it – not just for themselves, but for their children

"Oh, you wanna save my baby from Death? Stab him like a pincushion please. He will take the optional ones too. I will drive through the snow for that flu shot. What I really love the most is two children that I can reasonably expect to survive their childhood. It's literally the best "

Also, yeah, with modern medicine my kid would probably survive most vaccine preventable diseases, but you know what? Sick kids are the worst. I don't want my kid sick, itchy, and miserable when instead they can cry for a hot second and then get distracted with a sticker.

Once upon a time, there was a happy, healthy, normal 8 year old girl. One day she got very, very sick. Her father was a doctor and he did everything he could, and eventually she went back to being a happy, healthy 8 year old girl.

FOR THE NEXT 45 YEARS.

Do not for one instant think you can whine to me about “vaccine injury” or “but, but autism!” when my immediate family lived with the results of lack-of-vaccine caused mental retardation (don’t get in my grill over that either; that was the medical terminology of the time). Which wasn’t accurate terminology, because my aunt’s mind wasn’t slowed down, it was permanently stopped at the point meningitis cooked her brain inside her skull.

My grandfather started his medical practice just around the point antibiotics were discovered. There was only one vaccine, the old cowpox-sorta-smallpox inoculation. As each new vaccine was invented, we were all hauled off to get it, because his grandchildren were not going to end up like his daughter!

One of Grandpa’s - and now my - most treasured possessions is Jonas Salk’s autograph on a vial of his brand new polio vaccine. There was a day, soon after its successful rollout, that Salk sold those autographed vials to every doctor, regardless of specialty, who came to Pittsburgh to get one.

My mother spent her whole childhood fearing polio and the iron lung like children fear the boogie man, and now, now October 1, 1955, my grandfather, who had spent years of his practice helpless against Infantile Paralysis, could cradle the end of all that pain, frustration, and fear in a single hand.

There’s something else I have - the marks of a smallpox vaccine. Because Grandpa was not fucking around as vaccines became available (fun fact; I’ve had both polio vaccines) and because with one last world-wide push, smallpox was eliminated. Everywhere. Forever! Nobody ever needs to have that vaccine again because once upon a time, literally everyone at risk took it for you.

You’re welcome.

Judaism and Halloween

My two favorite holidays- Halloween and Purim- share a lot of the same props.  Candy, costumes, masks, even drinks for the older celebrants.  Back when I went to day school, many of my classmates would buy their Purim costumes in October.  (There were also dorks like me who always dressed as biblical characters for Purim, but hey, they could look like anything, right?)

Not all religious Jews are keen on Halloween, though.  I distinctly remember an evening before Halloween when I brought home a letter from the school principal asking parents not to send their children trick-or-treating.  “It has deep pagan roots”, the letter went, “and is, at heart, a Christian holiday.”  I was heartbroken, but my parents- a rabbi and a woman who was, at that point, getting her PhD in Jewish studies- thought it was absolutely hysterical.  They took me trick-or-treating as usual.

“There are no bumper stickers,” they told me, “that say ‘Put the Hallows back in All Hallows Eve’.”

They had a point.  Halloween is pretty disconnected from Christianity, and I imagine there were a few Christian schools who sent their students home with similar letters that evening.  As for pagan roots, I was later to learn that there isn’t a single holiday about which that can’t be said in one way or another.

(Someday I’ll talk about the time I was told blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashanna was meant to scare away demons…but that’s a story for another time.)

The thing about a secular holiday is that religious Jewish kids could get excited about it.  Christmas spirit left us cold, and Passover meant nothing to the world at large, but for the month of October we could get excited about the same thing the rest of the children were excited about.  It sounds like a little thing, but it wasn’t- and still isn’t for me, to this day.  And if someone wasn’t into Halloween, that was also culturally acceptable.  You don’t see any big heartwarming family movies about forcing one family in the neighborhood who doesn’t like Halloween to get into the spirit of things, after all.

(Well, maybe Trick-r-Treat, but I will accept that kind of behavior from demons and dark gods.)

I used to live in a neighborhood that got super into Halloween decorations.  One day, my father pointed something out to me about them.

“Every decoration, from a house covered in skeletons to one with only a pumpkin, tells children that they can knock on the door and ask for candy.  How often do we really advertise that sort of thing?  Religious folks like to talk about feeding the hungry, but how many holidays have us hang signs on our doors that say, come to my house, stranger, and I will give to you?”

I thought about it at the time.  I’m still thinking about it to this day.

The tortoise and the hare have worked out their differences and are now sharing an apartment

Rivals to lovers combination slowburn/speedrun

The tortoise and the hare have worked out their differences and are now sharing an apartment

Behold, one of my best friend's Halloween costumes, recorded and uploaded by a complete stranger with over a million views on tiktok! (I'm so proud!!)

the master of lotus pier

I made a few adjustments to the illustration and reposted it. Thank you for the likes and reblogs!

some of you are making sect leader yao way too brave in your fics. in canon he's just an annoying yes-man who goes whichever way the wind blows and (pardon my language) rides whichever dick is the most powerful....he's not going to openly pick fights with sect leader jiang or chief cultivator hanguang-jun if he doesn't think that a bunch of people are also going to do that. he doesn't want to be the Lone Voice. he's not wen chao.

#make him the butt kisser!!#if your good guys have power or sufficient political backing#make Sect Leader Yao spend 3 paragraphs agreeing with them so annoyingly they're tempted to change their minds just to get him to shut up!#he's literally supposed to be the voice of the changeable mob mentality of the cultivation world#who have no morals so fixed that they won't change their minds if that's the way the political winds are blowing#and have never had an original thought in their lives#he's also just supposed to be REALLY ANNOYING about it tags via @flamingwell

I think people mistake his constant picking on JC as him having a grudge/particular focus against him. No, JC is just the easiest target he can bully to suck up to JGS. Once JC becomes "do not offend" that asshole is kissing up to him and offering him all his daughters.

Hm. All his daughters? Hm. Hm!

Sect Leader Yao, in an effort to suck up to Jiang Sect and Jiang Cheng, does, in fact, offer him all four of his daughters, at the same time even, possibly in the hopes that he'll at least take one. Jiang Cheng has the refusal letter all prepared, when he gets another letter, from the four daughters.

"Please marry all of us, we need to get OUT of this HOUSE and AWAY from our FATHER. We'll give you all the children you want, take care of your nephew and run your house like beloved sisters. (We'll also get rid of any assholes and bully our father if he's an asshole to you.)"

Jiang Cheng, baby Jin Ling on his lap, mushy vegetables on his robe, a stack of paperwork to do, disciples waiting for training, civilians requesting night hunts, requiring about twenty hours more each day: "There is no downside to this. Come to Lotus Pier, I'll marry you."

Then he marries all of them and within a year turns into the envy of every cultivator alive.

I like to imagine that this absolutely happened in canon, and WWX/the audience just never see it because it simply does not come up.

doctors hate her! This woman is experiencing symptoms that might point to a health problem and wants doctors to do something about it

How are disabled and interracial illegal???

Interracial marriage was outlawed for the longest time, and disabled people lose government benefits when they get married so they cannot have reassurance that they will continue to LIVE if they get married.

Story time: my mom is white, dad is black. They’ve been together twenty four years, married for twenty three. When my parents were dating they did it on the low TO KEEP MY DAD SAFE.

My mom’s parents said “We don’t care who you love.” At that point she’d only ever brought home white guys. She brought my dad home-her mother called her a nigger lover and damned the relationship as much as possible. Her father grew around his prejudices after I was born but never apologized, just wasn’t a blatant fuck.

The day she introduced my father to her family was the last time she spoke to her mother for over twenty years. When I was getting sick and she called and asked her mother and grandmother if anyone in the family had anything strange happen similar what I was going through they told her “it’s because you married a black man. You made your bed, you lie in it.”

Cops pulled them over all the time and asked my mom IF SHE WAS OKAY AND IF SHE NEEDED HELP BECAUSE MY FATHER-A BLACK MAN-WAS DRIVING A 100 POUND WHITE WOMAN AROUND. HE WAS HARRASSED AND THREATED WITH ARREST.

My father ended up getting into a fight in self defence because some entitled hick decided he didn’t like seeing a black man and white woman in the bar together. Thankfully other patrons helped my father but he still couldn’t go to the er for his injuries. My mom patched him up and they were terrified the cops would take him away.

THEIR BEST FRIEND GOT LICENSED TO MARRY THEM SO THEY COULD ACTUALLY TIE THE KNOT BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE WOULD AND CITED JIM CROW ERA LAW AS TO WHY.

When shopping with just me my father wouldn’t hold my hand if there was a group around. Why? I’m far lighter than him and people had stopped and asked him “whose child is that?” Or “little girl where’s your parents?” and were stunned when I grinned and pointed at my dad and proudly proclaimed “my daddy’s right here.” You know where else mixed kids couldn’t hold their parents hands? Apartheid South Africa. We live in fucking FLORIDA.

So yeah. Some history for you.

This post was made in October 2018. The above poster’s parents met in 1994. We were a generation removed from the Civil Rights movement and this was happening.

Disabled people on SSI in the United States can't get married to this day without losing the already pitiful amount they receive. All of this is still very much current in one way or another.

Fic Finder

Nov 14th

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1. Hello, I am looking for a fic that I think is wangxian. It was based on the ballad The Highwayman, and it ends tragically. It should be a complete work. Thank you!

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2. I hope you can help me find this one. It was a Twitter threadfic. In that LWJ proposed to WWX but WWX said no because he didn’t believe in marriage. They go to a wedding and the groom gets cold feet but LWJ helps him. Seeing that made WWX want to marry him but by then it was LWJ who changed his mind and WWX was heartbroken .

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3. There was this fix where wwx was a funeral arranger? Or something like that and lwj and wwx established relationship but then madame yu and her husband died and it focused on like grieving and stuff, there was also yanli and jiang Cheng and showed like the sibling bond I can’t find it I been trying for ages now

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4. Hello! I'm looking for a couple of fics I lost sight of a long while ago!

A) The first one took place during the Cloud Recesses Arc: all the swords are stolen at night by 'Wei Wuxian' who is later found badly injured in the forest. He had been attacked by the future Wei Wuxian/ Yiling Laozu.

B) The Second One took place after the Siege, and I'm pretty sure the spirits of the Wen Remnants attacked others? I don't remember much about it, I'm sorry.

Thank you in advance and I appreciate your service a lot

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5. Ok hi sorry can’t remember much but school in tilling WWX is teacher there LWY moves there to teach also become friends a misunderstanding make WWX not speaking to LWY after LWY follows a Yao and finds WWX fighting it on a rooftop they defeated the Yao and LWY asks WWX “you’re wearing crocks?” WWX is that what you are going with …, or something like that

As always THANK YOU for all that you do for us 😁 @bkpmystinen

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6. Heyy! I'm looking for two fics:

A) Omegaverse, modern au, wei ying is an omega and jc is an alpha and wy lives w the jiangs and i think there's this sort of expectation that he's gonna marry jc or atleast that's what jc wants, but wy gets pregnant by lwj and moves out after a fight then yeras later lsz and jl go on a date and that's how wy and jc meet again, cos jc's there when wy goes to dinner to meet jl's parents and uncle and turns out its the jiangs obviously, and basically jc's really stalkery and jealous after that but lz protects him.

B) modern au, omegaverse, lxc goes to pick up lwj from school and finds out a kid jc is his mate. he's disgusted and goes away for a while. when he comes back jc is older now. i don't remeber much but wy and lz are the side couple and wy is a beta as far as i can remeber, and there's a scene where jc wakes up in the hospital and wy and lz are kisisng and jc's kinds like fucking finally yk but yea!

Thank you! Love you guys!!

@body-inabyss-heart-inparadise

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7. Hello,

Ficfinder request.

Modern but with magic or cultivation. LWJ is a magical creature(?) hunter working for some kind of agency to protect humans.

The rest of the sects(from my memory) are families of magic creatures(?) but WWX has some kind of ‘half-breed’ status so when he goes through the magic/darkness detectors at LWJs work he doesn’t set them off.

Much of the fic is from LWJs pov but there is a great chapter from WWXs pov when he fully lets his powers out and we get badass WWX.

I feel like it was mdzs+ some anime but i don’t know which anime. 🥺 @empiresprince

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8. Hello, I am looking for a fic, where Wei Wuxian runs away from Lotus Pier, right after he was brought there and Jiang Cheng kicked him out and threatened with dogs (when they were children). I think that Wei found his father? Not sure, but I have a feeling that this fic was found here and I forgot to save it. Thank you in advance.

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9. Hi, I’m looking for a fic where after wwx is found during the sunshot campaign Jiang Cheng pretends his demonic cultivation is just the Jiang clan’s secret technique and uses that to keep the other sects off their back. I’m pretty sure it was from jc’s pov, and compared wwx, jc, and jyl to different bodies of water at the start of it (though I could be wrong about that part)? Thank you for the help

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10. Hello! I'm looking for a wangxian reality TV fic. It's a dating show and lwj is a participant while wwx is his camera man. They try to keep their relationship a secret but by the end the crew discovers them and has wwx brought in as lwjs partner. I think lwj proposes to wwx at the end and that Mo xuanyu was involved as the participant who stayed the longest

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11. Hello! I'm so sorry to bother you but I've tried doing all my own searches and just can't find it. There's a fic series where Madame Yu cut off Wei Wuxian's hand before the fall of lotus pier and the Wen siblings took him in to help him recover. He ended up leaving the Jiang sect and starting his own and he and Wen Qing became amazing at making spiritual prosthetics. I know it's a series and I know I loved it but I can't find it anywhere! Thank you for your help! @queerlyloud

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12. Hello! I started reading a Tangled x MDZS fic which I remember being pretty long. It was with lwj as Rapunzel and wwx as Flynn Rider. I started reading it but then decided I don't want to and now I regret it 😭. The part that I read was exactly like the start of the movie, with wwx complaining about how his wanted poster looked and all that jazz.

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13. Hey buddy, Hope you are doing well!

I'm searching for a fic. The only thing I remember is just a scene. The cloud recesses is hosting lectures and and guest disciples from all sects are visiting. I think it is after the war with the wens. It's a cannon divergence I think. The scene I'm referring to is, two of the disciples are from Su She's (Su Minshan, I think the full name is) and the sect heir is just a kid below 10. At some point others makes fun of him and his sister when they present gifts at the beginning of the lectures and LWJ kinda defends them, I think....

That's all I remember. Thanks in advance! @grrumpywoof

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14. Hello , I am looking for a fic where Jang Cheng dies instead of Jang Yanli at nightless city. Then she moves back to Lotus Pier and becomes sect leader, and lan wangji ends up living there too. Also, wei wuxian is brought back to life earlier, and by xue yang. lan wangjis back takes longer to heal.

Thank you!

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15. I'm in search of two time travel fics: A) WWX has traveled back to CR. LXC hears him playing dizi (wangxian among others) and recognizes it as something LWJ composed (possibly same fic, though I may be conflating details, he realizes in lessons WWX is pretending to be less skilled at the dizi than he actually is). B) LWJ travels back in time from right after the 30 lashes and ends up in the burial mounds early w/the wens, still seriously injured and bleeding through his robes. Thank you guys! @moku-youbi

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16. Hi I'm looking for a arranged marriage fic where lwj and wwx both are in love with each other but the marriage is arranged by their families. On the wedding day wwx overheard a conversation between lwj and his best friend who also have initials of ww the best friend had found a letter addressed to ww written by lwj confessing his love and think lwj is in love with him and he is trying to convince lwj to not marry and give him a chance. Their married life is full of misunderstanding.

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17. Hello! I would like to ask for help in finding a wangxian fic:

Modern with magic

I remember that Wei Ying got injured in Xuanwu cave together with Lan Zhan. In the Lan hospital he was denied help because he was fired (?) from the Lan org and later received a bill to pay for expenses.

He is saved by Wens.

Few years later Lan Zhan and Lan Xichen seek his help in some kind of case. Wei Ying says something along the lines of "I don't work with Lans".

Later Lan bros find out it was Su She's fault in how WY was treated.

I would really appreciate your help in finding it! ❤️‍🩹 @popugaj-ara

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18. hi there thank you for finding fics for us

there is a fic where WWX is a teacher in Yilling and LWJ accepts a teaching job at the same school, they become friends and then a misunderstanding (not uncommon btwn them) WWX ignores LWJ LWJ follows a trail of a yao sees WWX fighting it on top of the school roof when landing he sees is WWX and then asks "Are you wearing crocs?" I think WWX tells him is a comfortable wear

please/thank you @mysticalyunique

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19. hi this is for the fic finder! i remember the fic so well but i fear it may be deleted bc i just can’t find it in my bookmarks? so wwx after dropping off the face of the earth due to Wen Drama is a folk punk (?) musician along with wen ning and they live in a van, and jingyi is a huge fan, he drags sizhui to a show where they realize this guy might be lwj’s long lost best friend <3 call lwj over and they reunite, lsz is actually wwx’a bio child whom lwj adopted, they get to know each other etc

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20. Hi! This is fic finder. A ghost WWX after the first burial moubd sige. His ghost is in YMJ. JWY makes WWX to teach. WWX trains JL. And then there are a conference in lanling where WWX goes too. Thats all i can remember. Thanks! @idontknowwhattowriteforusername

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this can’t be real

He put them together at the kids table that doesn’t exist I’m fucking crying

its easy to make fun of this (and i think we should) but its also important to note the description of this new department that trump has given

[transcript: "together, these two wonderful americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies - essential to the 'save america' movement," trump wrote. "i look forward to elon and vivek making changes to the federal bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all americans."]

to be clear: trump is planning to create a new department whose purpose is literally to deregulate and defund government oversight. this will lead to corporations having greater freedom to fuck over consumers while making more money, and he is putting two billionaires in charge of it.

sure, maybe this is just a ploy to keep them quiet. giving them the illusion of power in exchange for backing him. but lets not forget all the regulations trump cut during his last term

which has directly led to the constant recalls of consumer goods and foodstuffs over the past several years. the recent e coli outbreak at mcdonalds? the boars head listeria recall? these are the products of deregulation. getting rid of laws and standards that protect consumers by making sure money hungry corporations dont cut corners.

the funny name is a smokescreen. keep your eye on these fuckers.

MDZS Network’s Anniversary Requests ; requested by anonymous​​

Made by @lan-xichens

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

If you are in your 20s and depressed I want you to know this: As you age, I promise, you will acquire tools and perspective that will open your world in ways you cannot imagine right now. You will find levels of contentment and joy you never thought possible. You will access a deep understanding and forgiveness of yourself that comes just from hanging out long enough in the same body, and that forgiveness will change everything. Also you may have a regressive depression so intense and long-lasting that it feels like a traumatic brain injury. don't freak out it's normal

he is soooo cool

Little pup with BIG head tilts! 🥰 Follow me for more cute puppies!