We're no the likes o other men that work eight hours a day

[sovay]

I have spent nearly every waking moment of my day so far dealing with bureaucracy, but unlike the vast majority of my experiences dealing with bureaucracy, this one has been fast-moving and responsive and at one point a representative actually called me back concerned that I had not received an important piece of digital paperwork (which I had not, so she re-sent it and I filled it out and about two minutes later the original copy came through per rule of Roger Rabbit, only when it was funny). It may still come to nothing, but I can't say that they aren't taking us seriously. Have some links.

1. I had never heard of the 1971 Ibrox disaster before reading this account by a survivor. The idea that people could be funneled to their deaths like a fish-trap by nothing more than numbers and architecture and negligence—no stampede, no fire, no collapse—apparently disturbs me more than some other disasters.

2. Speaking of disasters, I had heard of Roopkund and its skeletons, but not of the more recent and even more mysterious remains sifted out from their pilgrim fellows by carbon dating and genetic analysis. The absence of any kind of local legend really makes me curious.

3. David Schraub on America as, actually, a center-left nation.

4. I took an internet quiz purporting to reveal how an audience would perceive me if I were a fictional character and spatch had to ask me if I was all right because of the noise I made when confronted with the image of red Converse sneakers kicking off a skateboard and the designation "edgy step on me":

it's You. you're the edgy character with combat boots that everyone wants to step on them ( depending on what your gender is. ) you probably have a very cool style, and you're also absolutely gorgeous in a way that average people just ... aren't. you might be a little bit of an asshole, but that's ok. you get a pass because you're extremely attractive. you radiate some sort of energy that i can't describe. i'm not sure you're a real person honestly.

5. Have some amazing photos of shipwrecks.

As a person who has never been interested in actors because I don't know them and does not crush on characters because they don't exist, I wish at the risk of TMI to register my absolute confusion at waking up from a piercingly sexual dream of Van Heflin in Act of Violence (1948). I adore that movie and his performance in it, but I wouldn't sleep with Frank Enley if, like Mary Astor's Pat, I got paid for it. I would almost hope it's a metaphor, except then I can't think for what. Dumpster fire doesn't even begin to cover that guy.

Comments

[kore]

WTAF? I got that quiz result too and that is NOT me!

I think it had something to do with the black overalls/band T-shirt and picking the dark berries growing out of a thorn bush.

[asakiyume]

I'm curious about the Roopkund story but I've reached the nope part of the day when asked to create another account, even if it's to read a story I'm genuinely interested in. I looked at as much of the darked-out article as I could without creating an account, so I got to the fact that the bones were 800-some years old--but I'm intrigued by what you say about other, more recent ones being mixed among them.

If you let yourself engage in unfettered speculation, what *do* you think the explanation is?

--Good luck with the bureaucracy. I'm glad today the gears were actually moving.

[heron61]

Wrt the Roopkund skeletons - wow, mass death through hail storm seems like a profoundly odd explanation - not necessarily false, but very strange.

[selkie]

Dude, I was pierced to the heart by that quiz!

“Lesbians love you

you belong to the lesbians. everyone else knows this understands it and accepts it. you’re probably really cute personality wise and you either look edgy or you look like you’re an actual goddess. if you’re a male then i can’t even tell you what it is, but you just have That Energy that lesbians love. maybe a little awkward very sweet never talks about women negatively. you’re perfect. literally i hope you never feel insecure because there are a billion lesbians in the audience crying over you headcanoning you as either a lesbian or warrior of the lesbians.”

Where are we detecting lies about yours truly. Where?
(It’s the adorable seal eyes, innit?)

I guess, do you own combat boots?

[a_reasonable_man]

All interesting posts. I'd not heard of either the Ibrox disaster or the Roopkund remains. Ibrox seems to be further proof, as if we need more these days, of the harmful power of commitment to one's "side" over commitment to anything else. Reading about Roopkund, I wonder why no one has asked if the mysterious remains could be Ottomans?

I took the character test, and was confused--like taking an exam for a class I'd never attended. The character I was given with didn't sound like me either, so far as I know. It seemed a somewhat dark, chip-on-the-shoulder type.

[conuly]

1. I had never heard of the 1971 Ibrox disaster before reading this account by a survivor. The idea that people could be funneled to their deaths like a fish-trap by nothing more than numbers and architecture and negligence—no stampede, no fire, no collapse—apparently disturbs me more than some other disasters.

What really sticks with me is that the journalist had the bad luck to be in two such crushes on the same stairs. (And the good luck to survive both times.)

Obviously we've learned a lot since then, but even then they could've fixed it just by making a few adjustments to the egress.

[gwynnega]

I could imagine a sex dream with Van Heflin in Johnny Eager, but definitely not Act of Violence.

[starlady]

That journalist's story of being in a crush at the stadium twice reminds me of how my mom always used to say that if it's not your time, it's not your time. But I wound up reading the linked account of the Hillsborough disaster, in which the police were directly culpable for 96 deaths in similar circumstances and lied about it for decades, and found it even more chilling.

The Roopkund thing is fascinating. The hailstorm explanation for Roopkund A makes a lot of sense, but the Roopkund B deaths are wild. I incline to what the archaeologist quoted at the very end says, which is that an actual systematic dig in the area might yield enough context to illuminate the answers. That said--the lack of oral tradition doesn't seem definitive to me. The stuff about Nanda Devi gets remembered because it's about Nanda Devi. If these people didn't fit into that framework easily, they too would have been forgotten. And it's been long enough since the 18thC that it's not surprising that there aren't stories floating around about them outside that framework.

[sara]

you deserve better. people literally never shut up about how you deserve better. i mean if you get this i personally also think you deserve better do you want a hug or something??

I'm feeling kind of seen right now by this stupid quiz.

[ashlyme]

I squawked at your answers for 4, and I got this:

you deserve better. people literally never shut up about how you deserve better. i mean if you get this i personally also think you deserve better do you want a hug or something?? you’re probably super underrated. the majority probably only tweet about you to say that you need more attention. you genuinely do deserve more attention, too, BUT people overlook you very easily just because they’re assholes. otherwise, when you’re brought up, they’re just very upset that you’re sad so much. the fans that you do have are very loyal and perceptive of your good qualities outside of the negative center point :)

Depressed cult artist. Fie.

[minoanmiss]

*reads with fascination*

[dhampyresa]

I took an internet quiz purporting to reveal how an audience would perceive me if I were a fictional character
Apparently I'm "the baby"?! I don't know what to with this information.

[choco_frosh]

At least the bureaucracy was maybe useful?