flo_nelja | Reading

The Gales of November: The Untold Story of The Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon

Blurb:

For three decades following World War II, the Great Lakes overtook Europe as the epicenter of global economic strength. The region was the beating heart of the world economy, possessing all the power and prestige Silicon Valley does today. And no ship represented the apex of the American Century better than the 729-foot-long Edmund Fitzgerald—the biggest, best, and most profitable ship on the Lakes.

But on November 10, 1975, as the “storm of the century” threw 100 mile-per-hour winds and 50-foot waves on Lake Superior, the Mighty Fitz found itself at the worst possible place, at the worst possible time. When she sank, she took all 29 men onboard down with her, leaving the tragedy shrouded in mystery for a half century.

In The Gales of November, award-winning journalist John U. Bacon presents the definitive account of the disaster, drawing on more than 100 interviews with the families, friends, and former crewmates of those lost. Bacon explores the vital role Great Lakes shipping played in America’s economic boom, the uncommon lives the sailors led, the sinking’s most likely causes, and the heartbreaking aftermath for those left behind—"the wives, the sons, and the daughters,” as Gordon Lightfoot sang in his unforgettable ballad.

Focused on those directly affected by the tragedy, The Gales of November is both an emotional tribute to the lives lost and a propulsive, page-turning narrative history of America’s most-mourned maritime disaster.

I really enjoyed understanding the economics of Great Lakes shipping, the science of why November is the worst month on the Lakes (not say, January), and the detailed descriptions of what happened on November 9-10, 1975 on Lake Superior (funny how the other 4 lakes retain a form of their Indigenous names; I suppose English speakers didn't want to call it any variation of Gumee or Gami). The author spoke to many, many people with first-hand knowledge of the Fitz, including former crew members, family members of the lost crew, and various people on both ends of the journey who interacted with the Fitz and her crew.

It's amazing that the ultimate cause of the sinking remains a mystery. Weather, obviously, and lack of reliable data about the weather. But also, capitalism, I would say. There were three captains that sailed that day. One of them decided to hell with his bosses and parked his ship in Thunder Bay, even though he knew he would lose his 'on-time' bonus. The second captain and his ship, the Arthur Anderson, survived through pure luck. The third captain, Captain McSorley of the Edmund Fitzgerald, made every possible wrong decision he could have made due to not having the proper data about the storm and topography of Lake Superior.

There was a great deal of information about Gordon Lightfoot and how he came to write the song that has kept "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in the public consciousness. According to reports, he became very close with the families of the crew.

The one criticism I would have about this book is that it is a little bit disorganized, with a lot of hopping back and forth in time. For instance, Lightfoot is brought up well before the chapters dealing with the sinking, with no indication that he was even aware of the Fitz before she sank. Other than that, I highly recommend it.

And as a footnote, now I know the difference between two 1970s ballads with very similar names: "Brandy" and "Mandy". The lyrics to "Brandy" are printed at the end of the book.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: POW - Favorite

selenak

I finished s4 of For All Mankind with mixed feelings - you can read my review of the season 4 finale here, which goes into details as to why - but not so much that I wasn't curious about s5, which started on Friday.

( Spoilers finally found out what happened to Oleg from The Americans )

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Munich

labingi

(Reposted from my Substack)

I recently attended a Trinity Lecture Series lecture, "Knowing What We Don’t Know: Cultivating Intellectual Humility Through Imaginative Literature" with Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson. It was a very good lecture by a Catholic for an audience assumed to be entirely Catholic. As an agnostic Buddhist, I was a cultural guest, and it was the first time in a long time I have been a guest in discourse community that assumes everyone is an insider. Such an experience is a gift, even—perhaps especially—when it causes discomfort. Moreover, it was an apt gift to receive in a lecture about cultivating humility and knowing what we don’t know. I tried to follow Professor Hooten Wilson’s (hereafter JHW) advice to listen openly and think deeply. Here are some of my impressions.

I am fully onboard with her advice to read a wide range of fiction with openness and, if those works don’t initially connect with us, to start with the thought, “Maybe I missed something.” I’m not great at that. I’m a judgmental reader of fiction, especially if it’s recent. So this is something I can and should strive to improve on.

A key aspect of her advice was to read texts widely known to be great works of high morality in order to cultivate “taste.” By developing a taste for such works, we can gravitate to them and increase our exposure to good role models and lessons, while decreasing the amount of time we spend engaging with harmful inputs. I agree with a lot of this. “Taste” is not the word I would personally use because, to me, “taste” is a relatively amoral word; it refers to entertainment (or food, etc.) that one enjoys regardless of one’s underlying morals. For example, one may have a “taste” for horror movies without thinking people should terrorize each other in real life. JHW, however, ties “taste” strongly to moral rectitude, which is lexically alien to me.

I agree, however, that morality is deeply entangled with fiction. I agree that what we like generally says something about our values—or at least this is true for me. I agree that this is important and deserves consideration. I might call it something different: discernment, judgment? I personally would leave a greater philosophical space for enjoying works without morally agreeing with them.

But I agree that surrounding oneself with beneficial inputs is beneficial. Reading great works helps the heart and mind in ways that reading trash doesn’t. I have certainly absorbed ill effects from works with some kind of “harmful” message. The most harmful to me personally has been the message that women have to have a romantic partner to be anything other than a failure. This was culturally louder in my formative years than it is now, and it followed me from Disney to Jane Austen to every pop fantasy novel to every Shakespearean comedy, and so on.

But this is tricky because harmful messages can be in great works that also have good messages. Pride and Prejudice is a good novel; Much Ado about Nothing is a good play. I’m glad I’ve read both. On balance, I agree with my parents (and I think JHW agrees too) that reading broadly is a decent way to sort through different kinds of messaging. I doubt that it’s possible not to get psychologically hurt (at least for someone, like myself, who absorbs a lot of life through literature), but it certainly is possible to cultivate a practice of reading works that are thoughtful, well crafted, and conscientious in their various ways.

Where JHW’s discourse threw me was not in its basic points about reading but in its (Catholic) stance on humanity. She opened by asserting that we (humans) tend to think only about our successes and see our lives as a continuous rise through accomplishments. I thought, what universe does she inhabit? I thought, my default perspective is better summed up by an interchange in the Monk movie, where Monk says something offensive, and a bystander says, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” And Monk says, “Yes, every day. All the time.” (Quote may not be exact.)( Read more... )

kingstoken

I'm moving on the 31st, so I'm going do my first quarter reading wrap-up now because I don't think I'll be finishing anymore books in next few days. The first part of the year has actually gone really well, I have read seven books and completed a full series! I'm sometimes terrible about continuing series, so I was very surprised by that. Anyways, here are the books I read:

Magician by K.L. Noone - a sweet M/M fantasy romance, although it also felt very melancholic to me. I don't know if it was the author's intention, but one of the main characters is sort of semi-immortal, or at least lives way longer than any normal person, and he falls in love with a human man. The issue isn't really brought up til near the end of the novel and I wish there had been more internal thought or angst about this issue. That being said I did like the characters a lot and the way the author described the magic was interesting, and almost poetic at times.

The Knight and Necromancer series by A.H. Lee - this is three books, The Capital, The Broader, and The Sea. I'm just going to talk about them together because I read them back to back (and they have kind of smushed together in my head), which is something I rarely ever do, but the story was compelling enough that I wanted to keep reading and I was lucky enough that my library had them all on the hoopla app. So this series is a M/M fantasy romance about a Knight, who is the brother of the Queen, and a newly fledged Necromancer. The Queen is trying to make an alliance between her kingdom and the necromancer's mentor. There is a big bad that is trying to destroy the kingdom, people don't trust necromancers so every time something terrible happens they try and blame it on the necromancer, plus there is demons and dark magic involved. And while all this is going on a romance has developed between the knight and the necromancer. I will say my recurring complaint with this series is that it's heavy on the fantasy and light on the romance. What we get of the romance is good, but I wanted more of it. (This actually the opposite problem of most fantasy romances I've read)

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson - The main character has a condition similar to the "50 First Dates" movie where she forgets the previous day every time she goes to sleep, only instead of being played for laughs it's treated as the kind of horrific thing that it is here. Anyways, this woman knows something is wrong, and she can't trust her husband, and she knows this because she writes herself a diary and every day she reads it. You follow her as she tries to piece her life back together. There were moments where it felt you were taking two steps forward and one step back, but it makes sense in the context of the story. Overall, a very memorable concept for a mystery.

Justice League, Volume 1: Origin by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee - I was kind of surprised to find this comic volume in a free little library, but I enjoyed it. It is about the formation of the Justice League and these characters meeting for the first time, I think this is part of the new 52. I liked that they had Batman using his head and taking on more of a leadership role, because he is so under powered compared to the rest. I did feel that Superman was out of character though. Overall, lots of action, but it needed more character moments.

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths - just finished this one today. It was nice mix of modern mystery and Gothic, which isn't easy to pull off. It is very centred on this school where one teacher dies, which leads to another murder, and it's all connected to another teacher at the school. There were three main POVs, I really liked Claire and Harbinder's POVs, one is an upper-middle class teacher and the other is an immigrant working class police detective and they both bring different perspectives to what is going on. My least favourite POV was the teenage daughter, Georgie, but I do think the author did a good job of capturing the feeling of teenager thinking they are way more grown-up than they actually are. Overall, a solid and enjoyable mystery.

delphi

Fandom 50 #6

Continuing my list of fifty Canadian songs I love from the past fifty years, 1982 is just a good old-fashioned banger.

Your Daddy Don't Know by Toronto

Watch on YouTube

tcampbell1000 posting in

scans_daily

Pat McGreal and Mike Vosburg’s “Homeward Bound” reveals that the JLI’s Russian member, Dmitri Pushkin AKA Rocket Red #4, is not actually Russian. He’s…( Canadian? )

schneefink

A little over a month ago I finally started my Hades II 1.0 playthrough, and I've been having a lot of fun. I just reached another milestone today so I thought now is a good time to post some notes.

( My first 62 runs )

snickfic

In which I review two movies with main characters named Grace.

Ready or Not 2 (2026). Immediately after the events of the first movie, Grace is kidnapped, handcuffed to her estranged sister, and put into a new hide and seek game against the heads of all her in-laws' fellow rich devil worshippers.

This was a great time. It's not as tightly written as the first, and I have some quibbles, but Samara Weaving is once again and absolute delight, and the cast of rich assholes was a lot of fun, even if they couldn't bounce off each other quite as well as in the first movie because they're not all related to her. I adored Sarah Michelle Geller as Ursula, one of a pair of twins who take the field together, and one of my biggest regrets is that we didn't get more of her and Grace interacting directly. Even with the little we have, I ship it really hard.

I also enjoyed how the movie managed to take multiple key themes and plot points from the first movie and put new spins on them, and I enjoyed the expansion of the lore.

I wasn't totally sold on the sister relationship. I didn't have a problem with the estrangement part or how that got used to retcon in a family member for Grace, but I wanted their history to be a lot messier. "I didn't take you with me when I moved out at age 18 because I didn't think I could take care of you" vs "You abandoned me" just isn't that interesting a conflict to me, you know? Nor does it offer much room for interesting resolution. I've seen people say they found the movie very shippy for sistercest, but I'm not really into it, unfortunately, because they just weren't fucked up enough for me.

Also, this movie was straight to a distracting degree. ( spoilers )

So: overall not quite as charming as the first, but still very fun.

--

Project Hail Mary (2026). Ryan Gosling stars as xeniobiologist turned middle school science teacher Ryland Grace, who gets recruited for an interstellar mission to try to save the sun from getting eaten by space microbes.

Gosling is the only human being on screen for about 80% of the movie, and he carries the movie so effortlessly that I was genuinely surprised to realize that this movie is by far his most financially successful leading role. He's been getting lead roles for 20+ years, so it feels like oh yeah, of course he's an A-lister, but actually I think this is the movie that is going to cement that for him. And good for him!

The other main character is the rock alien, who is primarily a puppet augmented with animatronics and CG. I wish I'd realized going in that he was mostly practical, because I'd have paid more attention. The sets are also fully practical, and I read somewhere that there is zero green screen work; when Grace is doing his spacewalks and so in, Gosling was being filmed against matt paintings that were touched up later. And you can feel it! This is a megabudget SFF movie that was nonetheless made with love.

There are some other characters in the flashbacks, but the only one I cared about was the administrator of the mission played by Sandra Huller, whom I absolutely loved. She brings such gravitas that it felt like she was in some other movie entirely. I looked her up, and it turns out she starred in that movie Anatomy of a Fall from a few years ago, which I definitely need to see now.

The story itself is really linear, even taking into account the flashbacks in the early part of the movie. There aren't really any surprises here; you'll get the movie you saw in the trailer. I enjoyed all the montages of Grace Doing Science, which I gather is the novel author Andy Weir's big strength. The ending stutters a bit, in the sense that there were about three in a row and it wasn't clear which one was the actual end, and I have some worldbuilding/plot questions about how things shook out, which I assume Weir answered them at length in the novel.

It didn't blow my mind like it seems to have blown a lot people's, but I had a good time. If you're in the mood for a space adventure, especially one with a lot of practical filmmaking, you should check it out.

shipperslist

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malurette

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shadowhive

So the music post I was planning yesterday fell by the wayside, oops. I did start it I just… got sidetracked and couldn’t watch the things I planned for it (cause I wanted thoughts fresh in my head)

I love that everything I’ve seen about the 5 Seconds of summer show is super slutty, like Calum in a skirt, Luke on his knees, mic sharing, Ashton’s fit. Also I’m so amused, one of the pieces of merch has Calum’s name misspelled like how?

But anyway!

Today was Megacon so this post is gonna be able that. It was odd being up and active so early. I’m not usually a morning person but I was out for the 8:37 train. I spent the trip first reading sfx (going through the reviews), sitting with my eyes closed and ficcing a few paragraphs.

I forgot how far the nec is from the train and with stairs so it was a bit of walking. There was a 5SOS poster I noticed on the way which me squee, then I saw Professor Cox is doing a talk at the same venue in October which is wild.

Getting in was easy enough and I collected the cute pin I got with the ticket. I had early entry which was kinda a good idea cause for the first while it wasn’t too busy.

One of my first stops was mystery dice goblin, cause the only thing I was sure I’d get was some of their dice. They had a thing where you roll a d20 and if you got a Nat 20 you’d win something and I did! It was a mystery box (would’ve been £20) and had two sets of dice bags, a pretty raven/crow book park, a Dm cat pin and a journal. I also got a free d20 from a code they’d posted and it’s very pretty.

I found out the person I got foolish pins from had a stall so I found them and got a Fennekin pin(and another Pokémon one as a gift), I must’ve missed them having mareep (it was in the pics they posted but I must have missed it or someone had it) but ah well.

I did a thing at another dice store, where I got a bundle with a a student discount. So I had a mystery bag of random stuff (a lil eh), 5 gacha d20’s (including a purple one! They were all quite nice) and rolled a d20 which got me a soft resin set which looks nice, though I can’t work out what’s in them.

I also got another mystery dice set from another stall which was completely random dice but they look nice.

Over the course of the day I wandered round the stalls, mostly adorning the art cause damn. Artists really are so impressive. Like all of it was so pretty. I kinda wish I’d had more warning than a week that I was going cause I’d have been able to plan, cause there were stuff like stamp rally’s and such. (plus I could’ve maybe maybe had more money, as it was I was limited)

What I did get was some Stranger Things art (they had an offer on getting three) so I got Dustin/Steve’s hug, Dustin and Steve at the graduation (with ghost Eddie) and Robin, Eddie and Steve in Scoops outfits.

I saw the was a Pokémon card rally thing so went around and got some of them, Drifloon, Zigzagoon and Noivern (and extra ones the artists had too). I also got a Leon charm too cause it was pretty.

And there was someone doing props of things out of wood and I got a boomerang from Zelda which looks so cool and it wasn’t much either.

I saw a few of the panels. First there was a quiz, with people getting onstage answering questions. I do not have the social skills or knowledge for that. Then I saw an Expedition 33 panel and one of the guys there was a handsome Frenchman which was nice. I also saw a voice actress from FNAF and honestly, she sounds so cool. She can do stunts, collects medieval weapons and horse rides. Then there was one for Epic the musical which was fun too, even though I don’t know it much.

The two main panels I went for were the ones were Seapeekay. The first, had 5 creators onstage and was only half an hour. It felt like too short a time for so many people (the presenter even acknowledged that) but one of them was so cool. She played Elden ring using her mind! I’m not sure how she did it but it sounds impressive. And it was funny how, at the end when asked to share socials Seapeekay was like ‘it’s spelt phonetically Seapeekay, ocean urine okay’ which was so funny.

I didn’t get to see Seapeekay then (he zoomed away too fast) so I hoped to have more luck at the pokopia challenges he was gonna do and… well it was a bit of a disaster. It’s clear there wasn’t much thought as to what the challenges would be, nor was anything set up (a lead was missing). (Though ti was cute seeing Seapeekay dance) It made me think of the simpsons quote ‘it was a veritable orgasm of poor planning’. What was settled on was planning hide and seek/prop hunt for the remainder of the hour.

It was a bit of a disaster really but it was pretty funny. Funnier still cause it was an area Seapeekay hadn’t got to so he was completely lost too and couldn’t even figure out stairs. (Props to the other guy hiding as stairs perfectly)

I did manage to catch him before he left, but only briefly (I overheard him say something was left in the cloakroom at the other con that he went to yesterday😭) but I got to say hi and got a pic. I’m sure I look terrible, but at least I beat the anxiety to get it. I wish I’d had more time cause I carried the cards wound all day in case I saw him (despite being a listed creator he didn’t have, like, as set area or anything.

But by that point too I was flagging a bit anyway, tiredness caught up with me.

By the time I got to the station a train was there so I just got on it and now I’m one stop away from home.

I’ll take pics of stuff and post on insta later, then add links too.

But mostly I’m gonna flop, have some noms and something to drink, maybe finish off The Awakening special features and bundle up

Edit: Eyes too achy to watch stuff alas but! Pics! The mystery dice goblin box I won. Pics of the other stuff, including the dice from the packs

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: 5 Seconds Of Summer - Telephone Busy

profiterole_reads

Project 2052: Revolutionary Dispatches from the World of Everything for Everyone is amazing and available for free! This is speculative activism fiction written in the form of non-fiction. 4 interviews and 1 epistolary story cover the many crises of the mid-21st century, then the insurrections that led to establishing communes all over the world.

There is no reading order, so you can start with the website, then go for M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi's book.

In a time where tech billionaires seem to use dystopian science fiction as a model, it is especially important to counter it with hopeful stories offering us options to reflect about. Current issues, like the Palestinian genocide and the war on Iran, are also taken into account.

Most characters are LGBT (trans women...) and/or POC. For more Activism Fiction Books, check out my rec list.

hrj

Clearly my impulse to mirror The Theory of Related-ivity somewhere besides my Alpennia log was the correct decision, because I'm getting far more engagement (which implies far more readers) on File 770 than on my blog.

I was double-checking to confirm that I did actually get one comment on the blog and noticed something interesting that I'm not sure is correct. According to the "approved comments" index, while I've gotten an average of one comment per month on the blog in the last year (and thank goodness we've finally set up a filter that successfully blocks the deluge of spam comments), according to the index, I received NO comments in the previous 7 years.

I don't think that's right. I mean, I whine a lot (though mostly inside my head) about not stimulating conversations on the blog, but I'm pretty sure I got at least a few comments between June 2018 and June 2025! But since I get them so rarely, it would be a lot of work to scroll back through the blog and search to see if there are comments on the posts that simply aren't showing up in the index for some reason.

Does anyone remember commenting on my Alpennia blog within the last 7 years and remember what you commented on to help narrow the process?

gothikmaus

This isn't one of the main prompts, but when you get an idea, you don't argue with the muse, you just draw it.

Drawing and prompt list under the cut.

( Yep, those are pretty sharp )

Current Mood: artistic

feurioo posting in

tv_talk

Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

paranoidangel posting in

tardis_library

Title: Ten Times The Doctor (Almost) Got Hitched
Creator:

thisbluespirit
Rating: General
Word Count/Length/Size: 5358
Creator's Summary: You wouldn't believe how difficult it is for a passing Time Lord not to get married to famous historical women completely by accident. Seriously. Happens all the time.
Characters/Pairings: First Doctor, Second Doctor, Third Doctor, Fourth Doctor, Fifth Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Seventh Doctor, Eighth Doctor, Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Cameca, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson, Liz Shaw, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough, Evelyn Smythe, Bernice Summerfield, Charley Pollard, Rose Tyler
Warnings/Notes: None

Reasons for reccing: Because it's fun and silly, and also exactly the sort of thing that would happen to the Doctor.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192298

malurette posting in

glyfic

Titre : C'est magique !
Auteur :

malurette
Base : L'atelier des sorciers
Personnage : Coco
Gradation : G / K
Légalité : propriété de Shirahama Kamome, je ne cherche pas à me faire de sous avec.

Prompt : "quotidiennement incroyable" (blablart du 12 jnvier)

( S'émerveiller tous les jours... )

jacquelee posting in

ladiesbingo

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queenslayerbee

We're back to 2025! After today I'll start posting the ficlets (largely drabbles, but some double or triple drabbles) I wrote for the Three Sentence Ficathon that year.

Title: luddite.
Fandom: DC comics (Birds of Prey).
Character/Pairing: Barbara Gordon/Dinah Lance.
Rating/Warnings: T, none.
Summary: For the prompt: "DC, Barbara Gordon/Dinah Lance, sexting."
Word count: 100.

read more

-

Oracle's words –if Dinah was a mythology buff, she'd capitalize that– had inundated every part of her life; from her disembodied voice acting like her own personal Jiminy Cricket, to the coded messages on her pager.

Sometimes there was the tiniest sliver of flirtation in them –Oracle flirted with many, it seemed–; it'd been a willful choice to flirt back, as a way to drive herself through the grief.

Getting over the most serious, soul-destroying relationship in her life with the floating face on the screen was one of Dinah's worst decisions to date. But it was hers to make.