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9 Nutcrackers Whistling by Irene Radford
9 Nutcrackers Whistling
Irene Radford
Whistling River Lodge Mysteries

Beauty and Grace can mask worlds of evil . . .

The Whistling River Lodge has rebounded from Covid 19 closures. Christmas is coming and Glenna McClain and her crew are hosting a ballet Master Class of adolescents and teens that will culminate in a performance of The Nutcracker Suite. Then the organizer of the event is brutally murdered and hidden in a snowbank. International conspiracies abound, the FBI is called in, the dogs poke their noses into everything, and decorative nutcrackers wander. Can the intrepid detectives solve the crime before the performance? Can Glenna watch the all-important performance before she goes into labor?

About the Author: Irene Radford, aka P.R. Frost, aka C.F. Bentley, has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. A member of an endangered species, a native Oregonian who lives in Oregon, she and her husband make their home in Welches, Oregon, where deer, bears, coyotes, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers feed regularly on their back deck.

A museum-trained historian, Phyllis Irene has spent many hours prowling pioneer cemeteries deepening her connections to the past. Raised in a military family, she grew up all over the US and learned early on that books are friends that don’t get left behind with a move. Her interests and reading range from ancient history, to spiritual meditations, to space stations, and a whole lot in between.

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Chapter One

SUNDAY

“Yihaaaaaaaa!” a childish screech reverberated from the hotel dining room. The cheer was followed by a loud thud.

The noise drowned out the annoyingly repetitive “Jingle Bells” playing through the sound system. We’d hidden the state-of-the-art speakers behind the artful mound of holly and evergreen perched on the fireplace mantel.

Welcome to the Whistling River Lodge and Golf Resort.

I really wanted to rush from behind the registration desk—a massive piece of polished furniture more than one hundred years old—to soak up some of the joy created by the youngest of the dancer students filling my lodge this week. Not an option. The bulk of my seven-and-a-half months pregnancy made the procedure of moving my rolling desk chair back along the dais behind the desk, and then leveraging myself upward was beyond me.

I’d have to hope some of the wondrous jubilation was contagious.

Under normal considerations, I’d be encouraging—um monitoring—the activity in the dining room… well running the lodge was never normal. Being part-owner and manager of the Lodge meant that I, Glenna McClain, could never shirk my duties. I lifted my hand and beckoned forward a uniformed employee, any employee, I didn’t care which one.

A few of the fifteen- and sixteen-year-old dancers, male and female, lounged about the lobby petting my dogs. Salt and Pepper, the miniature poodles and hotel mascots, made the rounds, absorbing all of the attention they could get. Big Al, my rescue Newfoundland Retriever, one hundred fifty pounds of fur and loyalty, sat on my feet beneath the registration desk, shivering in fear.

That meant that the jump-the-creek crowd were the younger dancers, not the soloists too dignified to participate in childish games.

The rules of the dance Master Class prohibited participants younger than ten. I didn’t think we had anyone under twelve registered. Therefore, the tag game must be younger siblings not being controlled by dance moms who filled my lobby.

My newest college intern, Veronica, dashed from the rolling luggage racks near the door toward the exuberant cheers. “It’s okay, ma’am, the kids are practicing their leaps across the creek in the dining room,” she called.

As if we had more than one creek running through the interior of the lodge. The hotel had been built over and around the creek at the end of World War One by Aloysius Whistler. Providing a cement lined creek bed—with rocks stuck in to make it look more natural—was easier than diverting it, or letting it undermine foundations.

This time of year, the creek ran full, only an inch below the cement rim. The slushy rain outside filled to overflowing all of the drainage off nearby Mt. Hood. Our creek was part of the eco-system.

It remained one of our biggest attractions for a unique dining experience. It brought a bit of the wild outdoors inside.

I wished I could be out of doors right then. Breathing fresh cold air and running my dogs—the two poodles and Newfoundland retriever—along a secluded path. That was normal. That was right, and what I needed to give my hearing a break.

Um… did I mention that the bulk of my pregnancy made walking through the lobby… interesting?

Not to mention that the temperature outside hovered around thirty-four at the heat of the day, and the precipitation had turned from rain to slush. Going outside was not recommended.

The playlist shifted to “Jingle Bell Rock.” I breathed a sigh of relief at the change of pace.

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Daily Happiness

Dec. 8th, 2025 10:46 pm
torachan: scott pilgrim pouting (scott pilgrim - pout)
[personal profile] torachan
1. We had a nice dinner at Disneyland today, though it was way more crowded than I was expecting. (Though after thinking about it, I should have known! This week is the last few days the lowest tier of passholders can go before the blackout, and the second tier only has a couple more days than that, so everyone's trying to cram in a last visit.)

2. Gemma was so cutely writhing around with this carrot.

2025 Disneyland Trip #76 (12/8/25)

Dec. 8th, 2025 10:26 pm
torachan: anime-style me ver. 2.0 (anime me)
[personal profile] torachan
We went down to Disneyland for dinner tonight. I very foolishly did not get my Disney backpack out of the other car before we took it in for repairs, so I don't have the sip and savor pass for the Festival of Holidays booths, and decided on Disneyland rather than DCA, but that ended up being a bit of a mistake as we got there right before the parade started and the park was suuuuuper crowded because the lower two levels of passholders only have a few more days before being blocked out for the rest of the year.

Despite the parade crowds, we still had a good time )

Music: Nazdrave Ti

Dec. 8th, 2025 09:43 pm
sonia: Quilted wall-hanging (Default)
[personal profile] sonia
Here's another song we're singing this time, Nazdrave Ti, Chorbadžijo, "Cheers to You, Master of the House." This is a caroling song with a strong dance rhythm, and I took to it much more happily than Otče Naš. Koleda is the Bulgarian term for the Christmas season. And I love the design of this album cover!

Cheers to you, master of the house!
Oh, Koleda!
We sing to you, we praise God.
As much sand there is by the sea,
May you have as much grain in this house.
As much water there is in the sea,
May you have as much wine in your barrels.
As many leaves as there are in the forest,
May you have as many sheep in your pens.

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Posted by adamg

Nyleamah Tinnell Kinsey, 50, was ordered held in lieu of $15,000 bail today on charges she pushed another woman onto Green Line tracks at North Station around 1 p.m. on Thursday, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Kinsey was arraigned on charges of assault and battery on a person over 60 and disorderly conduct.

The victim suffered "numerous injuries," but was pulled from the pit by bystanders before any trolleys arrived, the DA's office says.

Innocent, etc.

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Posted by John T. Haller

Audacity logoA new version of Audacity Portable has been released. Audacity Portable the popular Audacity audio editor packaged as a portable app, so you can take your audio files along with everything you need to edit and record on the go It's packaged in PortableApps.com Format so it can easily integrate with the PortableApps.com Platform. And it's open source and completely free.

Update automatically or install from the portable app store in the PortableApps.com Platform.

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Posted by John T. Haller

A new version of calibre Portable has been released by PortableApps.com. calibre is an ebook manager, converter, and viewer with support for a variety of formats and devices. It's in PortableApps.com Format so it can easily integrate with the PortableApps.com Platform. And it's open source and completely free.

Update automatically or install from the portable app store in the PortableApps.com Platform.

three from hong kong

Dec. 8th, 2025 06:57 pm
jazzfish: book and quill and keyboard and mouse (Media Log)
[personal profile] jazzfish
The Cinematheque is doing a Hong Kong New Wave action series, which means I finally get to see a bunch of movies I've heard about for ages.

City On Fire )



Peking Opera Blues )



The Killer )

Animal encounter.

Dec. 8th, 2025 09:31 pm
hannah: (Zach and Claire - pickle_icons)
[personal profile] hannah
Waiting for the traffic light, listening to the noise around me, I looked down and saw a dog - one that was shaped like an actual dog, with short black fur, a proper nose, bright eyes, and a remarkable amount of patience for being so quiet in the face of all the noise. Cars, trucks, horns, traffic all around, a cement mixer driving by that whined and gave off these weird high-pitched noises as the mixer turned, and I thought that if it was loud for me, it must be unbearable for her. She was very well-trained in leash work and boundaries, and as well-trained and well-adjusted as she was, it made me think: New York City isn't good for her.

She was mostly quiet, except for one point where she made something like a whine mixed with a whimper. I told her, "I don't blame you." But I don't think she heard me what with all the noise around us.

At the next corner, I complimented her behavior on who I thought was her owner; she said she was just the walker, and the dog's name was Kato, and she was impressed at her, too. I didn't ask to pet her, just looked at her, watching a little kid ask if she could pet Kato herself instead. I thought about how her owners needed to commission a walker's services, and how it could be a brief thing due to a family emergency or it could be a standing commitment, and knowing Manhattan, it's likely the latter. It still strikes me as strange to keep an animal like a dog as a pet in a big city, and looking at her today, it feels even stranger. I walked across the park and listened to the sounds of the vehicles and thought about how unpleasant I found it, and how the city isn't designed for auditory comfort. It could be, and it isn't, and it saddened me to think how much worse Kato must have things.
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Posted by adamg

ICE is still trying to kick Rümeysa Öztürk out of the country for the perfidy of writing an op-ed in a student newspaper it didn't like, but a judge ruled today that as long as she's here, it has to restore her listing in the national database that determines whether foreign students can participate in American college and work programs.

In a ruling today, US District Court Judge Denise Casper said that not only does ICE have to restore Öztürk listing in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), it has to give her and her lawyer at least a week's notice if it's thinking of purging her again.

Casper said Öztürk - dragooned by hooded men outside her Somerville apartment on March 25, then driven around New England before being flown to Louisiana - met all the requirements for the preliminary injunction that remains in effect as long as her case against removal remains active in court: She showed irreparable harm without it - she cannot get jobs and positions related to her educational work while she's not in the database - that an injunction is in the public interest and that she has a strong likelihood of winning based on the fact the government so obviously broke the law in the way it tried to strip her of her ability to continue as a student in the US.

The government contends that an injunction is not in the public interest, because of the government's interest in immigration control.  The Court does not question that the government has multiple legitimate interests in the realm of immigration enforcement. ... The government, however, directs the Court to no case recognizing an interest in enforcing immigration policy through unlawful means.

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[syndicated profile] dailykos_feed

One of the silliest preelection narratives around the New York City mayoral race was the supposed fear that a victory by democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani would spark an exodus of the city’s wealthy elite.

Billionaire investor and all-around Trumpian asshole Bill Ackman was typical of the lot, crying on X this past summer that both businesses and wealthy people had “already started making arrangements for the exits.” Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, another obnoxious MAGA bro, claimed he might move his company out of New York “because I hate the guy.” His grand plan? Move to New Jersey. Equally high-tax, equally liberal. So … yeah.

John Catsimatidis, left, and Margo Catsimatidis attend The King's Trust Global Gala at Casa Cipriani on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
John Catsimatidis and Margo Catsimatidis attend The King's Trust Global Gala at Casa Cipriani on May 2, 2024, in New York City.

Grocery mogul John Catsimatidis, who runs the Gristedes and D’Agostino Supermarkets chains, also threatened a move to New Jersey. 

“We may consider closing our supermarkets and selling the business,” the 76-year-old entrepreneur told The Free Press. “We have other businesses. Thank God, we have other businesses.”

And it wasn’t just right-wingers. New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul fretted about a potential Mamdani win because “I don’t want to lose any more people to Palm Beach. We’ve lost enough.”

Experts have been rolling their eyes at these threats all along. 

“There is tax-induced mobility. It’s not non-existent but it’s very small,” Quentin Parinello, a tax expert, told ABC News. 

In major cities like New York, people value the arts, business opportunities, and the ability to hire talent. ABC’s reporting includes several researchers making the same point: While the wealthy love to complain and posture, they rarely follow through. 

“Movement of rich people on the basis of tax differentials is relatively small,” said Northwestern University professor Jeffrey Winters. “It’s very common for them to threaten to move. The risk is grossly overstated.”

Think of everyone who said they’d move to Canada if Donald Trump won the presidential race. Talking is always easier than acting.

Still, the New York Post—being the right-wing tabloid it is—keeps trying to manifest this fantasy. 

“‘Mamdani effect’: Miami realtors report 166% spike in inquiries from wealthy NYC residents,” blared a recent headline. But even the story immediately contradicts itself: “Manhattan luxury contracts actually jumped 25% in November… a surge some brokers said shows ‘there is no Mamdani effect.’” The only sources in the Post story claiming otherwise are Miami real estate agents who make money convincing New Yorkers to relocate.

And since the Post didn’t bother providing raw numbers, that “166% spike” could literally mean inquiries went from three to eight. A phone call isn’t a move. Honestly, the number is almost certainly made up.


Related | Can progressives ride Mamdani’s momentum into the midterms?


As for real numbers? 

“Sales of luxury homes in Manhattan jumped in November, countering fears that the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor would drive out wealthy residents,” Bloomberg reported. Buyers signed contracts on 176 homes priced at $4 million or more, up 25% from the month prior. These included condos purchased for around $24 million each. Not exactly a market in retreat.

There’s an even more telling statistic: Luxury housing inventory is down. 

“[I]nventory actually fell 16% in the luxury market from October 2024 to October 2025, indicating that there is no flood of New Yorkers selling their homes and leaving town,” reported USA Today. If the wealthy were running for the exits, inventory would be skyrocketing. Instead, it’s tightening.

Of course no one likes paying higher taxes. Even those of us who believe in a functional government don’t enjoy writing the check every year—we just see it as the cost of a society that works. So it’s natural for wealthy New Yorkers to gripe about an extra 2% tax on incomes over $1 million (which likely won’t happen anyway; Albany leaders seem uninterested in backing Mamdani’s campaign proposal).

But the reality is that New York City’s wealthy residents get a lot for what they pay. Another Bloomberg story features David Bahnsen, a Republican wealth manager who sits on the board of the conservative National Review. He despises the city’s liberal politics, calling them “contemptible.” And while he frets about potential tax increases, he isn’t going anywhere.

The luxury, residential skyscraper buildings of "Billionaire's Row" in Manhattan are visible from Central Park in New York City on Sunday, February 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
The luxury, residential skyscraper buildings of "Billionaire's Row" in Manhattan are visible from Central Park in New York City on Feb. 20, 2022.

Bahnsen openly acknowledges that New York gives him advantages he can’t get anywhere else—the clients, the talent, the nonstop drive of the place. What really hooks him, he says, is “the energy of the city, the ambition.” That spark doesn’t exist in the low-tax red-state enclaves conservatives claim are paradise. Certainly not in Florida. 

And he’s not just staying—he’s thriving: morning jogs in Central Park, Broadway shows, dining out every night, walking 40,000 steps on a typical weekend, even working out of offices that are steps from the Museum of Modern Art. Sounds pretty good, actually.

And that’s really the dynamic at play: The wealthy stay because New York gives them a lifestyle they can’t replicate anywhere else. The city’s appeal isn’t just the museums, the theater, the restaurants, or the talent pool—though all of that matters. It’s the density of opportunity. It’s being in a place where the most ambitious people in the world cross paths every single day. Deals get made over coffee because everyone who is anyone is already there. Entire industries cluster on the same few blocks. For people with the freedom and means to take advantage of all that, the cost of living is simply baked into the price of admission. 

For them, the taxes aren’t a deterrent because New York City delivers something tangible in return: world-class public amenities, a creative and economic ecosystem unmatched anywhere in the country, and an energy that makes even the most stubborn conservative wealth manager admit the city is worth it. As Bahnsen said—perhaps after skimming another anti-tax screed in the magazine he bankrolls—Central Park alone is “worth the cost of living in the city.” 

And he’s right. Where else can you step out of a skyscraper, walk a few blocks, and be surrounded by 843 acres of urban wilderness, all maintained and accessible because New Yorkers collectively pay for it? And nothing Mamdani has proposed threatens any of that. 

But NYC’s price of admission isn’t the same for everyone. The amenities, energy, and opportunity that make New York irresistible to the wealthy don’t trickle down—they get walled off by the city’s staggering cost of housing, child care, transit, and daily life. If you can’t buy your way into the version of the Big Apple that’s thriving, you get squeezed into the version that isn’t. And eventually, you get pushed out entirely.


Related | ‘Make halal eight bucks again’: Zohran Mamdani has the blueprint


Northwestern University professor Winters highlights that point. 

“We are worried about the outflow of the very wealthiest people… when in fact the biggest outflow of people is among those who can’t afford even the basics of staying there,” he warned. 

The rich aren’t fleeing Mamdani’s New York. But the working class and the struggling middle class? They’ve been leaving for years because the price of admission keeps rising while their access to the city’s prosperity keeps shrinking.

That is the energy Mamdani tapped into. That’s what led to his resounding victory.

And that is New York City’s real challenge in the years ahead.

Netflix, this game was always rigged

Dec. 9th, 2025 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] dailykos_feed

Surely, Netflix knew how this would all play out.

Yes, while Friday saw Netflix announce it would pay $72 billion for Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and streaming businesses, that news was obliterated on Monday when Paramount announced its hostile bid, going directly to shareholders with a deal that would give them $17.6 billion more in cash than the Netflix deal. 

Since Paramount has already paid the customary Trump tax—an eight-figure bribe to his future presidential library—they appear better equipped to win regulatory approval for the deal. 

And these days, it’s the regulatory approval, not the money, that may matter most. 

Normally, political writers do not have to keep abreast of the blow-by-blow details of media mergers, but now that those mergers happen only if Trump wants them to, we get to think about this all the time. 

The Netflix deal wasn’t just some tentative offer that had been floated by Warner Bros. Rather, the Netflix and Warner Bros. boards had both voted to accept the deal.

FILE - Ted Sarandos arrives at the premiere of "The Electric State" on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at The Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, shown in February.

However, Paramount has enough money to go right to the Warner Bros. shareholders and offer to shower them with more cash. It also has enough influence with Trump to try to tank the deal in a regulatory way. 

Netflix almost certainly knew that, which is why co-CEO Ted Sarandos made a pilgrimage to the White House in November to discuss the deal with Trump. Sarandos left the meeting thinking that “Netflix wouldn’t face immediate opposition from the White House” over the deal, according to Bloomberg.

To be fair, the opposition wasn’t immediate, so Sarandos was partly right. But why on earth would anyone believe, nearly a year into Trump’s second term, that Trump is someone who would keep his word? Sarandos did show the proper deference by approaching the throne and begging, but Netflix was far behind Paramount in the sucking-up-to-Trump department.

It isn’t just that Paramount had previously shown its eagerness to do Trump’s bidding and turn CBS News into what is basically TrumpTV. Paramount is also far better-equipped to compete in this stupid, corrupt process because CEO David Ellison’s daddy, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is a big Trump ally, getting huge multibillion-dollar deals like an amorphous AI infrastructure partnership and a stake in the deal that could see TikTok’s algorithm pivot to the right. 

Paramount also made sure to tuck a treat for the extended Trump family into its Warner Bros. bid: Son-in-law Jared Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, is helping to finance Paramount’s bid.

Skydance Media CEO David Ellison attends the premiere of "Fountain of Youth" at the American Museum of Natural History on Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Skydance Media CEO David Ellison, shown in May.

Altogether, David Ellison was likely not just blowing smoke when he was telling people in October that Paramount would be the only buyer the Trump administration would approve of. 

Trump himself paved the way for Paramount’s bid, remarking on Sunday that if Netflix bought Warner Bros., the resulting huge market share “could be a problem.” Trump also said that he would be involved in the approval process, which suggests he will put his thumb on the scale. And Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, doubled down on the threat Monday, saying that the Department of Justice would be examining the proposed Netflix-Warner Bros. deal “for quite a while.”

To recap: If Netflix buys Warner Bros., that raises antitrust concerns, but if Paramount—which owns everything from Paramount Pictures and CBS News to Nickelodeon, MTV, and more—does so, it’ll probably be just fine. 

This isn’t to make light of sincere antitrust concerns. Increased media consolidation is a genuine issue as billionaires gobble up more and more information and entertainment sources, increasing prices while decreasing choices. 

But the Trump administration doesn’t care about market share so much as it cares about using the necessary, once-normal tools of oversight to force companies to their knees. Paramount long ago showed just how willing it is to do so voluntarily, so why shouldn’t it expect to be rewarded here?

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During a White House roundtable on Monday, Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia professed his love for President Donald Trump after the administration announced a $12 billion bailout aid package for farmers hurt by Trump’s chaotic trade wars. 

Scott: Thank you very much, president. We love you. ... A country that can't feed itself doesn't know what freedom is. And so thank you for making sure that our farmers have the tools that they need so that we as a country can feed ourselves.

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A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know.

Democratic governors' 2026 message hits Trump's sore spot

For a Democratic “con job,” this issue sure won’t leave Trump alone.

Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ is tarnishing fast

He can cover the White House in gold all he wants, but Americans still know the truth.

What Trump’s pardons expose about his politics

“No more Mr. Nice Guy!’ … Unless you’ve got big bucks.

Cartoon: Trump trough

The Trump family feast.

Trump reminds us that laws are for the little people

Trump may suck as a president, but he’s killing it with this whole criminal enterprise thing.

Bezos thinks big donation makes it okay to poison a lagoon

“They are brilliant enough to send rocket after rocket up into the sky, but they can’t figure out a better solution?”

Trump official flails when pressed on being a ‘soybean farmer’

The Trump team is a bunch of hardworking Americans, just like the rest of us!

Click here to see more cartoons.

sovay: (Haruspex: Autumn War)
[personal profile] sovay
It feels like cheating for the air to taste so much like the sharp tin tacks of snow when the sky is so clear that even through the white noise of the streetlights Cassiopeia comes in like pointillism and Polaris as bright as a planet. I saw none of the phi Cassiopeids, but the Geminids peak at the end of the week, with any luck on a night that cloudlessly doesn't make my teeth feel about to explode in my mouth. On that front, may I commend the attention of people in frozen boat fandom to this early twentieth century hand-painted stained glass window depicting Shackleton's Endurance? I spent my afternoon on the phone making sure of our health insurance in the bankrupt year to come: the customer service representative was a very nice science fiction person who agreed that it was time to reset this worldline on account of stupidity and for whom I apparently made a pleasant change from all the screaming and breaking down in tears, even more so than usual this year that never need have happened. I've been sent photographs of some really neat letters. Two cards arrived in the mail. My digital camera is showing further signs of deterioration, but a few evenings ago I caught one of those scratch-fired sunsets it's hard to wreck. I am aware of the collapses in the world, but I don't know what else to love.

Buses and jams

Dec. 9th, 2025 12:54 am
loganberrybunny: Drawing of my lapine character's face by Eliki (Default)
[personal profile] loganberrybunny
Public


311/365: Mural, Cripplegate Park, Worcester
Click for a larger, sharper image

I spent a good deal of time on buses today, which was always my intention. What wasn't my intention was spending quite so long on them! The bus from Redditch to Kidderminster was a bit of a nightmare, ending up over 45 minutes late thanks to a combination of roadworks and the apparent need for some teenagers to be given a lift half a mile home after school... Before that I had at least had fun, finally managing to do the 149 bus (Worcester-Redditch via Inkberrow) which I'd wanted to try for a while. It's a country route but one which uses double-deckers, and I managed to get a seat at the very front of the top deck, which is always fun. We did smack into quite a few smaller branches along the way, but that's part of the deal with these routes

My final bus back to Bewdley was electric. Amid the ongoing Ashes embarrassment, I couldn't help being secretly mildly amused that the bus was made by Custom Denning, an Australian company, and really didn't put in a brilliant performance. The highlight – or maybe lowlight – was it coming to a complete halt on the edge of a small road on the edge of town, and everything going dark (it was about 5pm by then). The previous bus had been a conventional diesel one built by Alexander Dennis, but they're Scottish so I can't claim them in cricketing terms!

The photo shows a mural in Cripplegate Park, Worcester. Unfortunately I don't know its title or artist.

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Posted by adamg

A Suffolk Superior Court judge today sentenced Anthony Dew, 43, of Dorchester to 7 1/2 to 9 years in state prison for a brutal attack on a woman who thought she was just going to share some drugs with him early on Sept. 8, 2024, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

A Suffolk jury convicted Dew last week of assault and battery, assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and strangulation for the attack in his mother's Evelyn Street apartment. However, a mistrial was declared for the remaining charges of attempted murder, rape and assault to murder. Dew will return to court January 21 for a status hearing on those charges, the DA's office reports.

Prosecutors told the jury that on September 8, 2024, Dew approached a 51-year-old homeless woman and invited her to do drugs. Dew brought her to his mother's house on Evelyn Street, where he raped, strangled, and beat her before fleeing and leaving her bloodied, undressed, and screaming for help in the driveway.

Upon arrival, officers observed a woman with her jeans pulled down to her ankles and a T-shirt soaked in what appeared to officers to be blood, pulled up. As officers approached the victim, she screamed “he raped me” and pointed to an apartment. The victim told police the man who attacked her lived there and had raped and beat her as she “went in and out” of consciousness. Officers observed the victim to be spitting up blood and her face to be covered in blood. Officers also saw what appeared to be the victim’s hair on the stairs leading out of the apartment.

The victim sustained contusions and abrasions all over her body and had swelling and bruising to her mouth, jaw, and both eyes.  First responders transported her to a local hospital for treatment.

Prosecutors said Dew made his arrest easy: Although he fled the scene, he returned as first responders were still treating the woman "and became verbally combative with officers."

This was not Dew's first time in Suffolk Superior Court. In 2016, he pleaded guilty in 2016 to five counts of human trafficking and was sentenced to eight to ten years in state prison, under a deal in which rape charges against him were dropped.

In 2023, however, after he completed his prison time, however, the Supreme Judicial Court vacated his sentence.

The state's highest court concluded that Dew, both Black and Muslim, could not have gotten the best possible representation because his lawyer, court-appointed Richard Doyle, was, in fact, a virulent hater of both Blacks and Muslims, somebody who spent several years posting anti-Muslim and anti-Black images and rants on his Facebook page - sometimes while he was in court.

Innocent, etc.

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FIAB fics!

Dec. 8th, 2025 04:42 pm
snickfic: (Buffy desert)
[personal profile] snickfic
[community profile] ficinabox reveals have happened, and after being a post-deadline pinch hit (and then a post-post-deadline pinch hit...) and being a little nervous about it, I got some great things. :3 More recs to come once I get a chance to explore the rest of the collection.

i said farewell (i meant don't go), Red Sonja (2025), Sonja/Petra, 7k. Petra survives the arena, goes traveling with Sonja after the end of the movie, and absolute does not pine or have any feelings about it (and then gets abducted by an eldritch cult, oh no). Jaded traumatized warrior women/young earnest warrior woman, what an excellent ship. :') The writing here is gorgeous, and the fic hits that good tropey goodness in a way that can be hard to find in femslash.

Probably readable canon-blind? If this sounds like your jam at all, I definitely recommend. This fandom is SO SMALL that the tag is unwrangled on AO3, and I worry that no one but me is going to find this fic and read it.

The Lonely Ones, Kyle Murchison Booth stories, Booth/Alexis Rigby pre-slash, 5k. One misterable stormy night, Alexis appears on Booth's doorstep, to their mutual surprise. This is the first fic for this ship longer than a drabble, and I am so delighted it exists. The writing is really delicate and lovely, and very careful, as it needs to be when writing Booth making new personal connections (whether he wants or not).

Reflections, Kyle Murchison Booth stories, Booth/Ratcliffe, 3k. Despite his best intentions, Ratcliffe loses touch with Booth and then starts to form some suspicions about why that might be. I love this premise of Booth being a kind of liminal being as well, which fits right in with some of the ways Monette treats time and setting in canon. A nice shippy little ghost(?) story.

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September 2025

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