A couple is walking in St. Petersburg Square on Christmas Eve. They feel a slight precipitation.
“I think it’s raining,” says the man.
“No, it’s snowing,” replies the woman.
“How about we ask this Communist officer here? He is always right!” exclaims the man. “Officer Rudolph, is it raining or snowing?”
“Definitely raining,” Officer Rudolph replies before walking off.
The man turns to his wife with a smile. “See? Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear.”
What pisses me off is the complexity of the context required to throw this pun so it made any sense.
I’ve seen a lot of posts that seem to fundamentally misunderstand the mechanics of more important Jewish holidays, so allow me to clarify a few things: If you’re approaching Jewish holidays the same way you would approach Christian, or even Muslim, holidays, then your framework for understanding our observance is entirely wrong.
We have different levels of holidays. Some of them, like Chanukah, are more minor and don’t really require much of us other than the brief practice of some symbolic rituals, which we can do in addition to whatever else occurs in our normal everyday lives. Go to work, light a menorah, eat a latke, spin a dreidel, attend a protest, whatever. We can do that on minor holidays.
But our major holidays—which for more traditionally observant Jews, includes Shabbat, our Sabbath—don’t work like that. On Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot (first two days), Shmini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, Passover (first two days), and Shavuot, we are technically not permitted to work or participate in public life in any way. Now, sure—a lot of us who live in Western countries and aren’t strictly Orthodox have resorted to workarounds for a lot of these. For me, I’ll work during the day on Passover, and have Seder at night, or I’ll go to Shabbat services on Friday, and then go to a portest on Saturday, I won’t really observe Shavuot at all, etc. It’s not ideal, but it’s the price I pay for living in a society that demands my assimilation. But 1) There are a lot of Jews for whom that compromise is morally not an option and 2) For the majority of Jews around the world, even if we’re very assimilated the rest of the time, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur tend to be deal breakers—especially Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. On Yom Kippur, we do not eat or drink for 25 hours. We do not bathe, we do not wear leather. We do not use lotions or perfumes. We do not have intercourse. We do not work. We do not participate in public life. We go to synagogue and we fast and atone.
It’s not like Christmas where you are encouraged to spend the day feasting amongst family but can still go out if you so choose (provided anything is open), or like Ramadan, where you can work or go to school during the day and then have Ifthar at night. We’re literally prohibited from going anywhere but synagogue or another person’s house for observance, and asking us to change the way we observe even more than we already do just to get by in Western society really smacks of assimilationist hubris. It’s not like we don’t already face repercussions for this (I straight up got fired from a temp job once for saying I would not be able to work on Rosh Hashanah), but it would be nice not to face them from people who supposedly understand the dangers of white Christian hegemony.
So when major protests are scheduled time and time and time again for Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, etc. there are only two ways we can take it: Either the rest of you are totally approaching our holidays from a place of ill-informed cultural normativity lacking in any intention to correct that failure of understanding despite our repeated pleas to be included, or worse, it’s being done on purpose because people actively don’t want us there. I don’t believe there was anything malicious in this most recent instance because it seems like the organisers are genuinely trying to find a solution, but it is a recurring problem that needs to be addressed, and understanding how we observe is an important component of that. We want to march. We don’t want to assimilate. There should be room for that here.
jq37 asked:
screwballninja-deactivated20181 answered:
I came into the fandom in S2, so I’m not completely sure– but I think the Signifier convention started in late S1 because Emma had so many ships. Snowing and Rumbelle portmanteaus worked great, and Emma’s first ship, Graham x Emma was “Gremma,” which also worked.
But then you had Pinocchio/August x Emma, Mad Hatter/Jefferson x Emma, Archie x Emma, and of course Regina x Emma and the portmanteau system broke down because “Emma” is hard to smoosh. Pinemma? Augemma? Madema? Jeffemma? Archemma? Regemma? They were kind of awkward– and so the [Name] + Swan signifier was born. Wooden Swan, Mad Swan, Swan Cricket and Swan Queen just work better (and are unique and easily searchable).
Does anyone who was here in S1 have anything to add? Am I totally off?
I was here in S1! I think you’re totally right about it being because of the massive amount of ships that season, but I would add that there were actually 3 difficult to mash names: Emma, Regina and Snow.
Regina’s name is equally hard to smash together and there were massive amounts of Regina ships too. Regimple, Regefferson, Regnow sound much better as Golden Queen, Mad Queen and Snow Queen.
In addition, with the exception of Snowing, Snow ships worked better with the signifier system. It was much easier to come up with phrases like Red Snow or Snow Queen than trying to mash Snow into other names (Row, for example, works but isn’t particularly romantic). I’m not sure which ship was the first to create the signifier system, but I remember Snow Queen and Swan Queen being among the first that I heard using that phrasing instead of a portmanteau and it just snowballed from there. So I’m betting on the system coming from the difficulty of at least one of those three names, if not all of them.
All of those ships have pretty much evaporated from the fandom (lol, I’ve been around so long, I remember when Golden Swan was a thing that existed). Pretty much the only ship to survive from those early days is Swan Queen but the system remains because it’s fun, easy, and clearly identifies the fandom. Even if you’ve never heard the phrase Red Cricket, you’d know it’s a Once ship.
There you have it, folks- thank you! Excellent point about Regina and Snow being multi-shipped as well.
P.S. Golden Swan! You’re truly a Once veteran. :-)
This brings back memories.
I think part of it is also that the three main ships with portmanteau names: Snowing, Rumbelle and Gremma, were the first canon ships on the show. All of the others were (for however short a time), fanon ships, and by the time other canon ships were introduced, the new naming convention had caught on.
I think the fashion was started with Swan Queen because both women had such iconic and easy-to-fit representations (Regina the Queen and Emma the Swan). Notice how in the case of Neal and Emma, which was not a season 1 ship, this does not happen, mainly because there is nothing to easily identify Neal with.
This is fascinating. I love learning how things develop in fandom like naming conventions and stuff like that. It’s so cool and brings out the linguist/anthropologist side of me.
MERRY CHRISTMAS YA FILTHY ANIMALS!
Months and months ago when I wrote the Fake Dating Roommate AU, you all requested the Christmas sequel, and so as a Christmas present to all you lovelies, here it is! The smutty Christmas miracle that you were all waiting for.
the only Christmas miracle if you fucking ask me
Enjoy, my darlings, and happy holidays!
Rating: E
Pairing: Wyatt/Flynn/Lucy, background Amy/Jess
Words: 4,164
Chapter Summary: Sequel to “Even if We’re Hopeless (At Least We’re Not Alone).”
Carol Preston, in a fit of either insane hope or hopeless insanity, has invited Lucy to the annual Keynes-Preston Family Christmas party.
It goes about as well as expected.
When I was doing Twilight there was a moment when it was snowing and hailing in the middle of the set and I couldn’t finish shooting the scene, so I went behind a tree and cried for like 30 seconds and came back and then went ‘right we’re going to do this and this’. On that film I never went over budget, never went over schedule, never fired people or yelled at people, nothing. But I get told that I’m emotional and difficult and cried on sets.” She laughs. “Listen I’ve been on sets where male directors have fired the crew, gone over schedule by a month, two months, even three, gone over budget by millions, come in unprepared, not even had a shot list, yelled and got into physical fights with people or, you know, brought hookers to set… No one says they’re difficult. Or I’ve also seen a big man, a former football player, who cried on set and you know what happened? People gave him a round of applause and said he’s so sensitive… If somebody says there’s not a gender bias, that there’s not a double standard, then they do not have their eyes open.”
Does she believe that double standard has had a knock-on effect on her career? “I said in print after Twilight came out that I’d love to do a superhero movie – did anyone call? Not one person, but we won best action sequence at the MTV awards and Twilight had just made $400m (£257m). Let’s just admit that any guy who’d done that every studio would have called them and been like ‘lets do a three-picture deal. What’s the next movie you want to make?’ For me it was radio silence. I refused to give up so I called up about a script I’d loved with loads of action sequences and said I’d love to meet on it and they came straight back and said ‘no we want a guy’. The guy they eventually hired had no box office close to what I’d done but they wanted a guy because it was action.”
When I was doing Twilight there was a moment when it was snowing and hailing in the middle of the set and I couldn’t finish shooting the scene, so I went behind a tree and cried for like 30 seconds and came back and then went ‘right we’re going to do this and this’. On that film I never went over budget, never went over schedule, never fired people or yelled at people, nothing. But I get told that I’m emotional and difficult and cried on sets.” She laughs. “Listen I’ve been on sets where male directors have fired the crew, gone over schedule by a month, two months, even three, gone over budget by millions, come in unprepared, not even had a shot list, yelled and got into physical fights with people or, you know, brought hookers to set… No one says they’re difficult. Or I’ve also seen a big man, a former football player, who cried on set and you know what happened? People gave him a round of applause and said he’s so sensitive… If somebody says there’s not a gender bias, that there’s not a double standard, then they do not have their eyes open.”
Does she believe that double standard has had a knock-on effect on her career? “I said in print after Twilight came out that I’d love to do a superhero movie – did anyone call? Not one person, but we won best action sequence at the MTV awards and Twilight had just made $400m (£257m). Let’s just admit that any guy who’d done that every studio would have called them and been like ‘lets do a three-picture deal. What’s the next movie you want to make?’ For me it was radio silence. I refused to give up so I called up about a script I’d loved with loads of action sequences and said I’d love to meet on it and they came straight back and said ‘no we want a guy’. The guy they eventually hired had no box office close to what I’d done but they wanted a guy because it was action.”
merry christmas to everyone who didn’t get presents today because their family couldn’t afford it and merry christmas to everyone who couldn’t make it home for the holidays and merry christmas to everyone spending it alone i want you all to know that i hope you all have a great great end of the year and i love you all and even if your holidays weren’t how you pictured them i hope you still have a good rest of the holidays and year
Anonymous asked:
emmastudies answered:
Helloo! Happy holidays as well :-) Here are a few links that might help:
Here are some printables that might help you get organised:
I hope this helps!! Good luck with everything and thank you xx
Shout-out to the mlm who are gonna be asked about bringing a girl home for the holidays
Shout-out to the wlw who are gonna be asked about bringing a boy home for the holidays
Shout-out to the trans kids being forced to present as their assigned gender who are going to be misgendered and misnamed
All of you are so strong and valid and I love every one of you. My blog is always a safe space for anyone who needs to talk. Especially during the holidays. You’re all amazing. Families can suck and holidays can be tough, but is temporary and you’ll make it through. I beleive in you
The next person who tries to correct me when I say “Happy Holidays” is going to be told Happy Hanukkah instead. Very tired of hearing, “No, it’s MERRY CHRISTMAS.” I’m pretty sure Judaism was around a lot longer than your Buckstar’s boycotting butt, Karen.
My boss once shared a great story about that. This happened when he was in a layover in North Carolina back when the “War on Christmas” bullshit was first becoming prominent. He had gone to get a pack of cigarettes, and after he paid for it:
“Merry Christmas.”
“Happy holidays.”
“No. I said Merry Christmas.”
“Do you know what Hanukkah is about?”
“No, what?”
“Some people tried to make us worship their ways, so we rose up and killed them. Happy Hanukkah.”
