The duck nesting season is underway, which can only mean one thing: Ducklings!
Yup. There are going to be ducklings!
Anyway,
this is my reminder to you to NOT feed them bread.
This also goes for any duck at any time of the year, but goes double during the adorable ducking season.
No bread, of any kind, has any nutritional value for ducks. By feeding them bread, it fills their stomachs while providing no nutrient. It’s essentially the equivalent of humans eating cotton balls, or grass. This is especially important for the wee ones while they’re growing.
I still encourage you to feed them because it’s hella fun but instead, consider these alternate options:
Cracked corn
Wheat, barley or similar grains
Oats (uncooked; rolled or quick)
Rice (cooked or uncooked)
Milo
Birdseed (any type or mix)
Grapes (cut in half)
Frozen peas or corn (defrosted, no need to cook)
Earthworms
Mealworms (fresh or dried)
Chopped lettuce or other greens or salad mixes
Vegetable trimmings or peels (chopped)
Duck feed pellets or poultry starter pellets
These foods more closely mirror the duck’s natural food sources.
The ducks and geese at the pond would lose their shit over thin shredded carrots and lettuce. It’s more fun than bread too cause they crunch crunch crunch. When I was homeless I’d buy a dollar menu salad with no dressing, then go share it with the park critters. Better than Netflix.
rocky horror is the worst and is also transmisogynistic can we please finally get over this shit movie
ok but like the writer is transgender nonbinary and the language used in the play was the preferred language by trans people of that time can we not deny parts of our history because we’ve evolved since then thanks
So fucking much this.
PS, youth of today: you’ll be saying the same damn thing about art from this time before too long, for good or for ill. Terminology will, in fact, change. Definitions will, in fact, shift. It always does, they always do.
PPS, it is pretty much impossible to overstate how life-alteringly important this movie was to kids who didn’t conform to standard expectations of gender and sexuality, back in the day. Especially when back in the day was the mid-to-late 1980s, when the only queers you saw on TV were neutered AIDS tragedies, Bowie was playing straight, and even Elton John was married to a woman, and midnight showing of RHPS were pretty much the only place that felt like home. It was mental life raft for a lot of people.
Next time you watch a big-budget movie or tv series, I want you to look
at the credits, and count the number of people involved in costuming.
Costume design, tailors, seamstresses, leather-workers, agers/dyers,
embroiderers, hair/wigs, make-up, metal-work, prop building, etc, etc.
Then remember that most of you do ALL OF THE ABOVE, usually solo, in
cramped bedrooms and kitchens and garages – typically on shoe-string
budgets, and squeezed into the hours around work and/or school.
Are you proud of yourselves yet? Because I am. I am bloody amazed at the
talent & creativity & work you all put in. You’re Jacks + Jills
of all trades and deserve to feel a massive sense of accomplishment for
that.
Ruby Rose: First of all how DARE YOU even consider fighting this precious cinnamon roll what possible beef could you have with her. Second of all prepare to finally understand what it feels like to have a twelve year old break every bone in your body.
Weiss Schnee: I understand. Really I do. How could you not want to fight Weiss Schnee at least a little bit? Everyone does, it’s a fundamental facet of her personality. That doesn’t mean she isn’t going to stomp your face into a freshly polished, solid gold curb. She’s just better than you. Do not fight Weiss Schnee.
Blake Belladonna: what the fuck. What the Fuck. hwat the fukc. do you know who this is. do you know who you’re dealing with right now? Blake Belladonna has killed a man with her goddamn pinky toe. Turn the fuck around and think about your choices you are not ready for this.
Yang Xiao-Long: You should absolutely fight Yang Xiao-Long. I mean there’s no way in hell you’ll win but who doesn’t want to take a solid right cross from her? Fight Yang Xiao-Long you won’t regret it.
Jaune Arc: Please for the love of god fight Jaune Arc. You’ll have to deal with Pyrrha mopping the floor with your organs afterwards but I think we can almost all agree it’d be well worth it. You have exactly zero chance of losing this fight.
Nora Valkyrie: Have fun on the fucking moon you scrub.
Pyrrha Nikos: ??? ??????? ?????????????????????????? Do you… do you actually think this could possibly end well for you? Pyrrha Nikos is a goddess you are so lucky she wouldn’t permanently maim you. Maybe you’ll even get some tips on your form while you’re slipping into your concussion-induced coma, she’s nice like that.
Lie Ren: This man turned a giant monster snake into chunky salsa with his bare hands. This man regularly serves food to Nora Valkyrie. This man has stared down death while making pancakes DO NOT FIGHT LIE REN.
Roman Torchwick: Absolutely fight Roman Torchwick. Wave some money in his face and kick him in the balls while he’s monologuing like the massive nerd he is. Kick some dirt on him while he’s down and take his hat please for all our sakes. Heck steal his lunch money while you’re at it. Play to his ego and you’ll walk away victorious, if maybe not unscathed.
Cinder Fall: Now I know what you’re thinking, “Hey isn’t she the main villain here? Of course I should fight her!” Well prepare to be dead wrong. Cinder Fall is flawless. She will tear you down piece by piece before she breaks your neck with her stilettos. You are going to be very turned on and also bleeding. Fight Cinder Fall only if you’re into that sort of thing.
Glynda Goodwitch: Look at Vale. Note the distinct lack of giant monsters or huge holes to underground death tunnels in the street. Consider for a moment how easily Glynda Goodwitch could throw you into the sun. Stay in your goddamn lane do not fight Glynda Goodwitch.
Professor Ozpin: Please fight Professor Ozpin please for the love of god I need to see it at least once. He’s old and makes cookies just like your grandma, and you can take your grandma in a fight can’t you? Go for it dude I’m rooting for you.
Some important additions:
Cardin Winchester: I mean, if you’re sufficiently skilled at fighting, you are morally obligated to kick Cardin’s ass; it’s your civic duty. He’s a huge douchebag, wipe that dumbass smirk he always wears off of his fucking face. The world will applaud you as you curbstomp him into oblivion. Fight Cardin Winchester.
Russel Thrush: Kick his Sonic-the-Hedgehog-wannabe racist country ass to the fucking moon, holy shit please fight Russel Thrush. He is Cardin’s right hand man and he is just as much of a douchebag, and not as smart. Fucking green shell his ass like in Mario Kart with that stupid looking shoulder guard he wears. Go. FIGHT. WIN
Sky Lark and Dove Bronzewing: Please kick their asses. They haven’t spoken yet, but their first lines should be their shrill cries when you break their legs. Fight Sky and Dove. Fucking do it.
Sun Wukong: I mean, you should kick his ass, but can you kick his ass? You can try, but he will slip out of reach of all your punches and breakdance around you like the asshole that he is. He will laugh at you and leave banana peels for you to slip on in his wake and then probably steal your wallet. You could fight Sun Wukong, but you probably shouldn’t unless you want to be clowned into eternal shame.
Neptune Vasilias: YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY KICK HIS ASS. FIGHT NEPTUNE VASILIAS. Not only is he a major nerd, but he is also uncoordinated and flops around like a noodle when he’s not grounded. Kick his tall ass in the shins. Shove his KPop-lookin ass into a locker. You can do it. Fight Neptune Vasilias.
Velvet Scarlatina: What the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you want to fight Velvet? How dare you???? HOW DARE??? No. She is a beautiful cinnamon bun too good for this world. Too pure. Do not fight Velvet Scarlatina. Plus, do you even know what’s in her box? Some say it’s the chopped remains of her enemies. Do not fight Velvet, you sick fuck.
Coco Adel: I mean, you can’t fight her and win, but you have to admit, you’d be honored to have her kick your ass. Fight Coco Adel. Not to win, but revel in the glory of her designer heels grinding you into the pavement.
Fox Alistair: Just because he’s blind doesn’t mean you should fight him. He will go Daredevil on your ass. He will eviscerate you and no one will be able to identify you afterwards. He’ll do that pufferfish shit to you like he did to that Ursa Major and that’d seriously be a horrible way to go. DO NOT FIGHT FOX ALISTAIR.
Yatsuhashi Daichi: He’s 7 fucking feet tall. He can probably crush ur skull with one hand. Hell, all he’d have to you is step on you and you’d be done. Kaput. Finito. Enough said. Do not fight Yatsuhashi.
One of my favorite linguistic phenomena is rebracketing, which is when a word or words is/are redivided differently, either two words becoming one, one word heard as two, or part of one word interpreted as part of the other. This frequently happens with articles, for example:
apron was originally napron, but “a napron” was interpreted as “an apron”
newt comes from ewt by the same process
nickname comes from Middle English nekename which in turn came from ekename (an ekename -> a nekename) where “eke” was an old word meaning “also” or “additional” (so basically “an additional name”)
ammunition comes from French amunition, which came from munition, the phrase la munition being heard as l’amunition.
the nickname Ned comes from Ed, via “mine Ed” being heard as “my Ned” (in archaic English, “my” and “mine” had the same relationship as “a” and “an”), same with several other nicknames like Nell
The word “orange” ulimately derives from the Arabic nāranj, via French “orange”, the n being lost via a similar process involving the indefinite article, e.g., something like French “une norange” becoming “une orange” (it’s unclear which specific Romance language it first happened in)
in the Southern US at least (not sure about elsewhere), “another” is often analyzed as “a nother”, hence the phrase “a whole nother”
omelet has a whole series of interesting changes; it comes from French omelette, earlier alemette (swapping around the /l/ and /m/), from alemelle from an earlier lemelle (la lemelle -> l’alemelle)
Related to this, sometimes two words, especially when borrowed into another language, will be taken as one. Numerous words were borrowed from Arabic with the definite article al- attached to them. Spanish el lagarto became English alligator. An interesting twist is admiral, earlier amiral (the d probably got in there from the influence of words like “administer”) from Arabic amir al- (lord of the ___), particularly the phrase amir al-bahr, literally “lord of the sea”.
Sometimes the opposite happens. A foreign word will look like two words, or like a word with an affix. For example, the Arabic kitaab was borrowed into Swahili as kitabu. ki- happens to be the singular form of one of the Swahili genders, and so it was interpreted as ki-tabu. To form the plural of that gender, you replace ki- with vi-, thus, “books” in Swahili is vitabu. The Greek name Alexander became, in Arabic, Iskander, with the initial al- heard as the article al-.
Similarly, the English word Cherry came from Old Norman French cherise, with the s on the end interpreted as the plural -s. Interestingly enough, that word came from Vulgar Latin ceresia, a feminine singular noun, but originally the plural of the neuter noun ceresium! So a Latin plural was reinterpreted as a singular in Vulgar Latin, which in turn was interpreted as a plural when borrowed into English!
The English suffix -burger used with various foods (e.g., cheeseburger, or more informally chickenburger, etc.) was misanlyzed from Hamburger as Ham-burger, itself from the city of Hamburg
This can happen even with native words. Modern French once is used for the snow leopard, but originally meant “lynx”. In Old French, it was lonce (ultimately from the same source as lynx), which was reinterpreted as l’once! In English, the word “pea” was originally “pease”, but that looked like it had the plural -s on it, and so the word “pea” was created from it. Likewise, the adjective lone came from alone, heard as “a lone”, but alone itself came originally from all one.
when i was 5 i remember my older sister called me “annuisance” a lot to her friends.
Righto mate it’s like this, you’re havin’ a sunday sesh gettin fuckin’ maggot with the boys, havin’ a right piss up and it’s fully sick. Daveo and Steveo are settin up the barbie to cook some snags but ya fuckin’ gas bottle’s carked it! Bazza’s like who’s keen for a maccas run but you had maccas for brekky and Tommo had it this arvo. Then Archie, the fuckin’ mad cunt he is, goes hey boys I’ll be DD, piles us into the commodore (SSV cuz he’s on big mobs of cash doin FIFO) and we all cruise down to Nandos for a feed.
