Over at the Mind Palate site: a centuries-old recipe that even Bilbo Baggins has been caught baking, just before that infamous Adventure he ran away to. :)

Theyre putting him down :(

my corner store guy is a 50 year old man who's my best friend in the world and recently he was like "you're too pretty to be single I have some nephews you should meet. very handsome!" and I was like "a niece might be more up my alley" and he just got more excited and said "ah even better! I was overselling my nephews but my nieces are very beautiful"

"Friends outside of Minnesota please read. I'm sharing a post written by a personal friend and medical doctor:
Friends outside MN, you need to know what is happening here. Everyone knows that ICE shot and killed a woman here on Wednesday. But that’s not the only thing that’s going on:

• ICE agents are cruising areas with immigrant-owned businesses, and kidnapping patrons and employees alike. Yesterday they abducted two US citizen employees at a suburban Target, one who was begging them to allow him to go get his passport to show them.
• ICE is going door to door in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods, asking residents where their immigrant neighbors live. Read that again. If it sounds like something out of your high school history textbook, that’s because it is.
• ICE is targeting schools and school buses. They pepper sprayed teenagers and abducted two school staff members at the high school up the street from me on Wednesday. Police are literally escorting school buses to ensure children can get to school and home safely. The Minneapolis Public Schools have moved to virtual learning for the next 4 weeks because it’s unsafe for children or teachers to physically come to school.
• They are targeting hospitals and clinics. Patients are scared and are cancelling their appointments or just not showing up. Kids are missing their checkups and vaccines, folks aren’t getting their cancer care, etc.
• They are smashing windows in cars and homes.
• ICE is increasingly picking up Native Americans—again, targeting folks based on skin color alone.
• They are arresting and beating legal observers. A friend of a friend had her arm broken yesterday. Folks are showing up at local hospitals, brought in in ICE custody, with severe injuries that are absolutely inconsistent with mechanism of injury reported by ICE. (Think: patient appears to have been beaten unconscious, while ICE agent says he slipped and fell.)
  I can’t emphasize enough that these ICE agents do not have warrants. There are 2,000+ agents here and they are simply hunting for anyone that’s not white. It doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or a green card holder, they will kidnap you first and ask questions later.
  
  But the community is fighting back.
• Protests are happening every day.
• Community groups have been leading know-your-rights sessions for months, often to packed venues.
• Whistles are being distributed by the thousands, carried on keychains and worn on coat zippers, always at the ready to be blown in warning if ICE is spotted.
• Drivers are following ICE vehicles, blaring their horns in warning.
• Businesses are locking their doors even while open to keep employees and customers safe. As I type this, I’m standing guard at the locked door of our neighborhood burrito joint while I wait for my takeout order, so the employees can focus on their jobs. The place is packed with neighbors supporting this small business.
• Anti-ICE signs are posted everywhere. The community is making it crystal clear that ICE is not welcome here.
• Parents and neighbors are standing guard outside schools, organizing carpools, and escorting kids to and from school on foot.
• Parents of kids in Spanish-immersion daycare (there are a LOT of these daycares here!) are keeping their kids home so the teachers don’t have to take the risk of coming to work.
• Churches and community groups are holding fundraisers to buy and deliver groceries to families who don’t feel safe leaving home.
• Mutual aid money is going out to folks who can’t make rent because they can’t work or because a breadwinner was abducted, or who need a warm place to stay after their home’s windows were smashed.
  
  THAT is what is happening here. This fight is ongoing and it’s horrifying to watch. But we are not backing down. To my friends in other cities and states, don’t think for a minute that this won’t happen in your town. It will. Be ready. Learn from us, as we have learned from Portland and Chicago and New York. Fight back. Don’t let us get to the last line of Martin Niemoller’s poem.”
  
  -Grant Boulanger

Acropolis of Athens

on laughter-silvered wings by ThatOnePlatypus | HP x KHR | Harry-is-Skull

It's a Harry Potter x Katekyo Hitman Reborn series, where of course, Harry is Skull.
I found it very relaxing to read, and it's probably gonna have a special place in my heart as one of those really wholesome and fluffy and funny moments (especially with the second work. moments just for the sake of moments. no crazy stuff, not necessarily any progression or big stuff, but like. very enjoyable.)

its different from like, when i run into a really good story (that's probably a long one) and get attached to characters. i basically live and breathe in the same world?

its different. but it was honestly a breath of fresh air in comparison to the many 'harry is skull angst' because of the arcobaleno treating him like shit? and while i am all for bashing of any kind, sometimes its just. nice to just not pay it any mind? and focus on bonds and stuff like that.

it felt like. it could be a way of moving on, i guess? like there's been many iterations of harry potter i've seen. and it could've very easily had a grieving harry, but no its become more then that. and i really appreciate that? and i adored it.

not lingering too much on the sad parts. not necessarily moving forward and past that but like, not letting it drag you down. not letting it make or break your world. it was nice.

Christmas as a cultural icon is starting to get really dystopian in a climate sense, december has historically been a time of year in which there would be snow in a significant portion of europe and north america, and the fact that its not even icy this time of year and all the christmas songs and decorations reference a time of year that will likely never exist in the same way again in my life time is so strange.

ouuh brother