Show idea: magical girl group but each girl is based on one of the seven heavenly virtues

ok so turns out this already exists and it was written in the fifth century AD

they have their own weapons and everything

"hephaistion made this" in a beautiful trompe-l'oeil piece of paper half unstuck by the wind still some of the rawest stuff ever put in a mosaic (2nd century bc, pergamon)

On July 31, 1968, a young, black man was reading the newspaper when he saw something that he had never seen before. With tears in his eyes, he started running and screaming throughout the house, calling for his mom. He would show his mom, and, she would gasp, seeing something she thought she would never see in her lifetime. Throughout the nation, there were similar reactions.

What they saw was Franklin Armstrong's first appearance on the iconic comic strip "Peanuts." Franklin would be 50 years old this year.

Franklin was "born" after a school teacher, Harriet Glickman, had written a letter to creator Charles M. Schulz after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot to death outside his Memphis hotel room.

Glickman, who had kids of her own and having worked with kids, was especially aware of the power of comics among the young. “And my feeling at the time was that I realized that black kids and white kids never saw themselves [depicted] together in the classroom,” she would say.

She would write, “Since the death of Martin Luther King, 'I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, hate, fear and violence.'”

Glickman asked Schulz if he could consider adding a black character to his popular comic strip, which she hoped would bring the country together and show people of color that they are not excluded from American society.

She had written to others as well, but the others feared it was too soon, that it may be costly to their careers, that the syndicate would drop them if they dared do something like that.

Charles Schulz did not have to respond to her letter, he could have just completely ignored it, and everyone would have forgotten about it. But, Schulz did take the time to respond, saying he was intrigued with the idea, but wasn't sure whether it would be right, coming from him, he didn't want to make matters worse, he felt that it may sound condescending to people of color.

Glickman did not give up, and continued communicating with Schulz, with Schulz surprisingly responding each time. She would even have black friends write to Schulz and explain to him what it would mean to them and gave him some suggestions on how to introduce such a character without offending anyone. This conversation would continue until one day, Schulz would tell Glickman to check her newspaper on July 31, 1968.

On that date, the cartoon, as created by Schulz, shows Charlie Brown meeting a new character, named Franklin. Other than his color, Franklin was just an ordinary kid who befriends and helps Charlie Brown. Franklin also mentions that his father was "over at Vietnam." At the end of the series, which lasted three strips, Charlie invites Franklin to spend the night one day so they can continue their friendship. [The original comic strip of Charlie Brown meeting Franklin is attached in the initial comments below, the picture attached here is Franklin meeting the rest of the Peanuts, including Linus. I just thought this was a good re-introduction of Franklin to the rest of the world - "I'm very glad to know you."

There was no big announcement, there was no big deal, it was just a natural conversation between two kids, whose obvious differences did not matter to them. And, the fact that Franklin's father was fighting for this country was also a very strong statement by Schulz.

Although Schulz never made a big deal over the inclusion of Franklin, there were many fans, especially in the South, who were very upset by it and that made national news. One Southern editor even said, “I don’t mind you having a black character, but please don’t show them in school together.”

It would eventually lead to a conversation between Schulz and the president of the comic's distribution company, who was concerned about the introduction of Franklin and how it might affect Schulz' popularity. Many newspapers during that time had threatened to cut the strip.

Schulz' response: "I remember telling Larry at the time about Franklin -- he wanted me to change it, and we talked about it for a long while on the phone, and I finally sighed and said, "Well, Larry, let's put it this way: Either you print it just the way I draw it or I quit. How's that?"

Eventually, Franklin became a regular character in the comic strips, and, despite complaints, Franklin would be shown sitting in front of Peppermint Patty at school and playing center field on her baseball team.

More recently, Franklin is brought up on social media around Thanksgiving time, when the animated 1973 special "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" appears. Some people have blamed Schulz for showing Franklin sitting alone on the Thanksgiving table, while the other characters sit across him. But, Schulz did not have the same control over the animated cartoon on a television network that he did on his own comic strip in the newspapers.

But, he did have control over his own comic strip, and, he courageously decided to make a statement because of one brave school teacher who decided to ask a simple question.

Glickman would explain later that her parents were "concerned about others, and the values that they instilled in us about caring for and appreciating everyone of all colors and backgrounds — this is what we knew when we were growing up, that you cared about other people . . . And so, during the years, we were very aware of the issues of racism and civil rights in this country [when] black people had to sit at the back of the bus, black people couldn’t sit in the same seats in the restaurants that you could sit . . . Every day I would see, or read, about black children trying to get into school and seeing crowds of white people standing around spitting at them or yelling at them . . . and the beatings and the dogs and the hosings and the courage of so many people in that time."

Because of Glickman, because of Schulz, people around the world were introduced to a little boy named Franklin.

From The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

There is no doubt that if the guvernment got involved with bbq sauce the same way it does with healthcare you’d lose all those choices and prices would rise without the competition.

someone post the picture of Khruschev being shocked by the absolute abundance of the average American grocery store.

It was Yeltsin, but the point remains:

The vaunted might of the Soviet Union, cucked by an otherwise unremarkable American grocery store.

Few figures in modern history embodied resilience and composure like Queen Elizabeth II. Across seven decades on the throne, she guided the monarchy through war, political upheaval, and social transformation with unshakable dedication and purpose.

Beyond her role as sovereign, she was remarkably self-reliant. Trained as a mechanic and military truck driver during the Second World War, she could repair an engine as confidently as she could deliver a state address. She was an expert horsewoman, an accomplished rider since childhood, and continued to ride well into her nineties. She was known to drive her own Land Rover across the Balmoral estate without security detail, and her skill with a rifle and understanding of the countryside reflected her lifelong connection to tradition and the land.

Her strength was not loud but steadfast. Through decades of public scrutiny and global change, she maintained grace, composure, and a profound sense of duty. Queen Elizabeth II demonstrated that leadership can be both powerful and poised, grounded not in authority alone, but in character, consistency, and quiet resolve.

❤️ long live the queen 👑

Amen to that. They don't make many like Queen Elizabeth II.

Lizzie was a hell of a woman.

An Italian village preserved much as it was in the Middle Ages, originating in the 1300sSermoneta, Italy 🇮🇹

I think a good way to help create inter-kingdom politics in a fantasy setting, is to visualize what sort of defences are at the borders and that usually informs how bad fights at the border are.

If they're non-existent, then it's obviously a good relationship.

A smattering of watchtowers here and there, then it's a few skirmishes every now and again but not terrible.

A few castles, then it's often more bad than good and often a good source of political drama.

Seriously walled towns and castles, then the fighting is periodic and often terrible.

A proper wall, then there's nothing good going on between the two.

You could throw in a dyke/big ditch in there somewhere too.

Not to territorially pigeon-hole myself here, but the Anglo-Scots Border regions are a good example of what I'm talking about.

The castles of my home region, Lower Silesia are also a good indicator for how "favourable" the Polish-Czech relations used to be during the Middle Ages

They're also a good indicator for how "favourable" the relations among the dukes of the Silesian Piast line used to be.

I do actually believe that Central European castles are a better example of castles used in their proper military role, purely because... well, it got a bit nuts over there.

Lower Silesia might also have the same extra feature as my part of highlands: "look, there's an important trade route here, we need to protect it from robbers", meanwhile the robbers in question are building their own castle two hills away

Indeed!

Sometimes the robbers also took over the castles built to deter them, and the local authorities had to build a new castle in the neighbourhood.

Or the guards simply became robbers themselves after noticing they could make more money this way.

There were lots of "Raubritters" in historic Silesia xD

The best known was the Czarny Krzystof / Schwarzer Christoph / Black Christopher, a robber so feared and powerful, that he even plundered the city of Nysa/Neisse. One of the reasons for his rise in power was the protection of numerous dukes, which he enjoyed thanks to sharing his loot with them.

Nevertheless even his luck run out, as the citizens of numerous towns that he terrorised banded together, stormed his castle of Grodziec/Gröditzburg, took him captive and hanged him in Legnica/Liegnitz in 1513.

Said castle (one of my favourites!):

Hate it when TikTok farm cosplayers and cottagecore types say stuff like "I'm not going to use modern equipment because my grandmothers could make do without it." Ma'am, your great grandma had eleven children. She would have killed for a slow cooker and a stick blender.

I’ve noticed a sort of implicit belief that people used to do things the hard way in the past because they were tougher or something. In reality, labor-saving devices have historically been adopted by the populace as soon as they were economically feasible. No one stood in front of a smoky fire or a boiling pot of lye soap for hours because they were virtuous, they did it because it was the only way to survive.

Taking these screenshots from Facebook because they make you log in and won't let you copy and paste:

We also forget that sometimes the "old things" we find fun, or at least not hard, are being experienced in a vacuum.

I love kneading my own bread by hand. I have very crackly knuckles, and the heft of the dough and the thickness as I pull the edges back in makes them feel better. Plus, I can put on some good music and knead in time, and it's fun.

....but once it's kneaded, braided, and rising I'll load the dishwasher and then sit down and have a cup of tea and a snack, and read or play a video game. If I'm feeling very productive I might throw a load in the washing machine. I might even take a nap!

Guess what my great-grandmother absolutely was not doing while her bread rose.

She was not napping. She was not playing games. She might be washing the dishes from making the dough, but her hands were in hot soapy water, not tossing a gel pack in a little holder and hitting a button and being done for two hours.

Once the bread was made the rest of dinner had to be started. No food processor for dicing or grating--she had to do it by hand and hope she didn't get cut. No premade pie crust or Shake'n'Bake--that stuff was being mixed by hand, rolled by hand, cut by hand.

If I was doing everything else the way she did it, I don't think I'd like kneading my own bread nearly as much as I do.

You cannot successfully understand why the fantasy is so ridiculous until you realize you're looking at ten minutes out of an entire day and calling it easy.

Sure, kneading bread is easy.

What about the other twenty-three hours and fifty minutes?