Westphalian
The westphalian language (not to be confused with the real world westphalian dialect group) is an ingvaeonic language spoken in, well, westphalia. It developed closely with the anglo-frisian languages, though is not one in itself, merely sharing some commonalities with the branch.
Phonology: (i tried to display this in a table, but reddit sucks, so take a list instead)
Consonants
m,n,ŋ,
p,b,t,d,k,g,
f,v,s,z,ʃ,x,h,
ɹ,j,[ɰ],
ɾ,l
Vowels
ɪ,ʏ,ʊ,
ø:,
ə,
ɛ(:),œ,ɔ(:),
a(:)
There are also 4 diphthongs! Those being /eɪ̯/, /aɪ̯/, /œʏ̯/, and /oʊ̯/.
Grammar:
The grammar is quite simplified from its Proto-West-Germanic origins, with nouns having 4 total stems they could be. Those being (using PG derivative terminology) the a-stem, ō-stem, n-stem, and r-stem. The r-stem, though, only contains seven kinship terms. Whilst the a-stem and ō-stem are direct descendants from PG, the n-stem is more of a combination stem of multiple stems ending in *-n. Nouns in westphalian are divided into two genders, common and neuter.
In terms of cases, nouns (and adjectives) can only inflect for two, those being the nominative and objective. The genitive is maintained though, in pronouns. Apart from that, nouns (again, and adjectives), also inflect for the numbers singular and plural.
I will move on to adjectives first, as it is an easier bridge from nouns. Adjectives only have one inflection pattern, instead of the multiple stems nouns could have, and this inflects for all the same things as nouns, but also strong/weak inflection, the predicative, and positive/comparative/superlative. Standard stuff.
Verbs also only have one weak inflection pattern left, though there are still some strong verbs that have different inflection patterns, the vast majority are weak verbs, which inflect using the same pattern. This pattern inflects for a few things, let's begin with person. It inflects for 1PS, 2PS, 3PS, and a general plural form. In terms of tenses, there is the present and past tense (more can be expressed using auxiliaries, this is just what they inflect for). Moods consist of the indicative, subjunctive, and imperative. Apart from that, they also have an infinitive, and a present and past participle.
Examples:
"Welcome to the westphalian language!"
Wilkowm tå de westfuylske språk!
/ˈvɪl.koʊ̯m tɔː də ˈvɛst.fœʏ̯ɰ.ʃə sprɔːk/
"The cold winter is near, a snowstorm will come. Come in my warm house, my friend. Welcome! Come here, sing and dance, eat and drink. That is my plan. We have water, beer, and milk fresh from the cow. Oh, and warm soup!"
De selte winter is neh, een sneastuyrm skoll kuymen. Kuym in mijn werm huys, mijn frent. Wilkowm! Kuym heer, sing en dans, eed en drink. Dat is mijn plan. Wij hebben wader, ber, en meelk frisk von de koo. Oh, en werme suyp!
/də zɛɰtə ˈvɪn.təɹ ɪs neɪ̯ - eɪ̯n ˈsnɛː.stœʏ̯ɹm ʃɔl ˈkœʏ̯.mən - kœʏ̯m ɪn maɪ̯n vɛɹm hœʏ̯s - maɪ̯n fɾɛnt - vɪɰkoʊ̯m - kœʏ̯m heɪ̯ɹ - zɪŋ ɛn dans - eɪ̯d ɛn dɾɪŋk - dat ɪs maɪ̯n plan - vaɪ̯ ˈhɛ.bən ˈvaː.ɾəɹ - bɛɹ - ɛn meɪ̯ɰk fɾɪʃ vɔn də kɔː - oʊ̯ - ɛn vɛɹmə sœʏ̯p/

This analysis comes from Cults and Nonconventional Religious Groups: A Collection of Outstanding Dissertations and Monographs, "Shakubuku: A Study of the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Movement in America, 1960-1975", David A. Snow, 1993, pp. 171-179.
I'll try to shave it down, because it's a long section, but he masterfully dissects the manipulation and artifice involved in the "discussion meetings" of then-NSA (now SGI-USA). You'll recognize the fakery he identifies - this is the nature of the Dead-Ikeda-cult SGI, a completely dishonest and exploitative cult.

It is at these discussion meetings, then, that NSA gets on with the real work of promoting and securing nominal conversion, of attempting to get recruits to take the first major step toward conversion by agreeing to receive a Gohonzon and to give chanting a try.

In those days, the nohonzon was issued up front (for a fee, of course - cash on the barrelhead).

And since gaining converts is, in large part, what this movement is all about, "nothing is more basic to the activities of NSA," as noted in the Winter edition of the 1975 NSA Quarterly, "than the discussion meeting." Or, as one district leader emphasized when discussing the importance of these meetings: "Discussion meetings are indispensable to the spread of the practice and the attainment of Kosen-rufu."

If you've ever felt confused at how sitting around someone's living room with the same bunch of losers month after month is doing anything toward the SGI's supposed goals of "world peace" or anything at all, actually, besides wasting the participants' time, I think what's described here will make it clearer what the original intent and purpose of these "discussion meetings" was, AND how far from that the current SGI "activities" have fallen.

The Character and Organization of These Meetings from a Sociological Standpoint
Given the purpose and importance of these discussion meetings, the question arises as to how they are organized and brought off in a strategic manner. In other words, what is the underlying strategy guiding this work of securing nominal conversion, and what are the kinds of tactical adjustments made at the line of scrimmage when the plan of attack does not appear to be advancing the group toward its goal of getting guests to agree to give chanting a try.

It's not enough that the "guests" say they'll try it; by the end of this ordeal, they'll say absolutely anything to get themselves to the other side of that door! What they really want is enough interest and desire on the part of those "guests" that they'll come back - and ideally become regularly attending members (as described in this indoctrinational creative writing fiction where a career Catholic priest is so entranced with the fictional (non)discussion meetings that he JOINS the SGI!! You'll notice that there is never any room within SGI to even mention one of THEIR SGI leaders who joins a Baptist church, for example, much less to celebrate such a stepping-out-of-line. But it's always FINE for other religions' leaders to see the obvious superiority of the SGI, knowmsayin?

In order to answer these question [sic] in a sociological manner, let us step out of the shoes of a guest and into those of a sociological [sic] with insiders' knowledge.
The Strategy of Theatrical Persuasion. Although members and the movement's literature like to characterize these meetings as being forums for free and open discussion and the spontaneous expression and flow of happiness and excitement, they are a far cry from gatherings characterized by spontaneity and unstructured discussion and interaction. Rather, they are meticulously planned and highly orchestrated meetings that can be best conceptualized, from a dramaturgical perspective, as theatrical-like presentations staged and conducted by a set of individuals (NSA members) who not only work together as a team but whose intimate cooperation is expected and required in order to foster and sustain a convincing impression or definition of the situation in the eyes of the audience (the recruits or guests).
Although the staged character of these meetings is seldom readily discernible to the unsuspecting guest, the appropriateness of conceptualizing these meetings in this way is suggested by the following considerations. First, the purpose of the meeting, as already indicated, is to sell guests on the idea of chanting, to so impress them that they feel compelled to give this practice call [sic] chanting a try.
Secondly, there is a division of labor such that all members have one or more roles to play. These various roles include the leadership role, the role of emcee, a general, overarching supportive role, and several more specific supportive roles, such as the role of giving an explanation of what NSA is all about, the role of a song leader, and the role of giving testimony. And even more significantly, members are provided with fairly detailed instructions, or, in the language of the theater, with scripts indicating what each role involves and how best to perform or play it.

There's a list of these roles. At the discussion meeting planning meeting, the attendees go down the list and simply plug different members' names into the worksheet.

The main leadership role, assumed by the district chief or, in his absence, the assistant district chief, includes, for example, the tasks of leading the chanting in a vigorous manner, conducting the question-and-answer session, meeting with each of the guests, and providing an inspirational role model for the other members. In performing these tasks, the leader is reminded that rather than putting on the air of a great sage, he should make a point of displaying great vitality, warmth, and compassion. Furthermore, he is expected "to be able to give clear explanations of the philosophy and practice," and is instructed to "always tailor his answers and encouragement to the audience."

Answers should always be tailored to the audience. If the guests are young, then the answers should include examples they can relate to. If the questions are too mystical or one-sided, the leader must have the wisdom to change the subject or break off the question-and-answer period diplomatically.

Blanche described how in her first district, the WD District leader instructed everyone that, if someone in the meeting was going on too long or rambling or whatever, that they should just start clapping wildly and shouting, "Congratulations!!" and then the MC would just move on to the next topic on the agenda. Reeeeal "spontaneous" there...

The emcee role is also regarded as particularly important, so much so that "the success of the meeting" is said to be contingent on how well it is performed. In fact, "so much depends on the emcee" that the discussion meeting is described for him as "a battleground in which he must struggle to bring victory to the members."

Barf. How far SGI has fallen! Now the goal is to see if there's some young teen in an SGI member's family who can be press-ganged to show up and read the agenda - their youth in and of itself is supposed to "encourage" everyone! Forget about all that "struggle" nonsense - they aren't gonna. This illustrates the SGI's current "form over function" approach, in which they just identify someone and pressure that person to do it, rather than the ideal candidate volunteering from a spirit of...oh, whatever - see above paragraph 🙄 Ideally, there would be SEVERAL young people positively brimming with passion and youthful energy who would be vying to be chosen: "Me! Let ME do it this time!" "No! ME!" "Choose ME!!" Instead, now it's just some tired old fart who agrees to do it, just to get this over with and there's no one else.

Specific responsibilities include setting "the gears fo the meeting in motion" and keeping the meeting going in a rhythmical and orderly manner.

You have to wonder just how crazy they envision these (non)discussion meetings might go - will a spontaneous rave break out if it isn't carefully controlled? An unpermitted parade? A frenzy of liturgical dance?? WHAT might happen??? Enquiring minds want to know!!

The emcee must develop the ability to keep the rhythm of the meeting going by making sure that there are no pauses or interruptions. If someone is causing a disorder, he should quiet the person in a polite manner. If a baby starts crying, he should see to it that either the mother or one of the young women at the meeting takes the child to another room to calm it down.

Gendered. Misogynist.

The emcee is also charged with being "the eyes and ears of the person leading the meeting."

Before and during the meeting, he should watch guests, be on the lookout for disruptions, and in general, be aware of everything that's happening. He should inform the person leading the meeting how many guests are present and whether they are young or old, so the leader can set the rhythm of the meeting accordingly.

Yeah. NO 😄 WOW but it's been a LONG TIME since any SGI sales pitch-based recruiting session - I mean discussion meeting - had any characteristics that would fit the above instructions. Just no way. Not now. Now, it's the same old handful of longhaulers dragging themselves in to go through the motions - as usual. By rote.

In addition, the emcee is expected to talk, act, and appear in a manner that displays or exudes strength, confidence, vitality and neatness.

The emcee must speak in a vigorous, strong and clear voice, but not screaming. The way he sits, stands up and moves the table must display confidence.

This was when a small table would be moved in in front of the person who led gongyo, who would turn around to face the group. This is of course a Japanese norm, completely foreign to Westerners. How many people outside of Japan even have a low table like that, designed for someone who's sitting on the floor??

In fact, he should stand up smartly whenever he is talking. As for appearance, he should reflect the image of NSA - clean and neat clothes and personal grooming.

It has been a LOOOOOOOONG time since ANY SGI district could insist on these requirements! Now they're just lucky if they can get anyone younger than retirement age to read the agenda off, and the agenda is often handed to them right there at the meeting itself - fuhgeddabout all this "advance preparation" nonsense. Nothing happens at the SGI discussion meetings, so nobody's going to go to this much trouble just because.

And finally, the emcee is instructed to have the details of the meeting worked out and the setting in order before the meeting begins.

...as opposed to showing up and being handed a printed agenda to read off as SGI does it now.

The emcee must have a plan for the meeting. He should write up a schedule showing who will give the explanation, what songs will be sung, who will give experiences and so on, and present it to the leader at least two days prior to the meeting. The emcee must prepare for the meeting. He should check to see if the meeting place is clean and neat, that all lights work and there is an appropriate meeting table. Most of all, he should do Shakubuku for the success of the meeting.

Oh, like any of that's gonna happen! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yes, things were VERY different back in the late 1960s-early 1970s, when the SGI organization in the US was still growing. As you can see, all this has been tossed right out the window.
A couple of items:

• "the leader" - this was when the leader of the local district organizational unit (typically the MEN's leader) would assume the leadership role for the "discussion meeting". This was replaced with a "central figure", an invited "SENIOR leader" who would agree to attend and serve this "leader" function. The invited SENIOR leader would typically lead gongyo and preside over the proceedings - that's more how these meetings are arranged now.
  
• that "Shakubuku" in the last sentence? It strikes me wrong somehow. Sure, that'd be great and all for EVERYONE to bring a "guest" (#SGIGOALZ of course) but I think that having the person CHANT for the success of the meeting would be a more reasonable assignment. Also, how could the MC properly shepherd their "guest" and STILL do all that MC stuff single-mindedly??
  

In fact, you can see a newly promoted leader doing exactly that, "chanting for the success of the meeting", here, from this same time period (early 1970s).
It's been a LONG time since any of this was happening, and you can clearly see in today's (non)discussion meetings how far things have deteriorated - and that's JUST the MC part! There's a bit about the demands on the members of the group - I'll skip to just this part:

As one district chief explained during a planning meeting for senior and junior leaders within the district and which I was invited to by one of my key informants:

Make sure to tell your members to chant in rhythm with the leaders. There shouldn't be any more than one rhythm. Everyone should be together so that there is unity. And remember to have them support the leader in whatever he says; the guests won't know whether he is right or wrong. So even if you don't agree with what is being said, act as if you do. this [sic] way there is unity at the meeting and the guests will be more impressed.

Wow, huh? It's completely dishonest and oriented entirely at flimflamming and bamboozling the "guests"!
Next there's a big section on "experiences", but I'm going to give that its own post because it's a WHOLE topic on its own. Hopefully today! But Ima skip ahead a bit, to p. 177:

A fourth indication of the staged character of discussion meetings is provided by the fact that planning meetings are held at both the district and chapter level for the purpose of discussing how to improve discussion meetings and make them more successful. Although rank-and-file members (those who have not attained that status of a junior or senior leader) are not normally invited to these planning meetings, I was able to attend several of them at the invitation of both my district chief and a junior leader who was one of my key informants.

SKULLDUGGERY!! 💀

It was during these planning meetings that I became deeply sensitized to the highly orchestrated and dramaturgical character of not only the discussion meetings but of NSA's overall operation.

At this point it's important to remember that "dramaturgical" means "relating to the art or the theory of writing and putting on plays, especially for the theater" - it's all putting on a show to manipulate the unwitting guests in order to trick them into transforming into new recruits. It's ALL fake - just a façade to fool the uninformed.

A fifth consideration suggesting that staged character of discussion meetings is the fact that much of what members do and say, both verbally and nonverbally, during the course of a meeting is to appear natural and spontaneous rather than artificial and contrived.

They try. Unconvincingly.

In other words, these meetings are not to appear as staged performances or as the product of dramaturgical cooperation. This concern is evidenced by the emphasis placed on exuding sincerity and responding to calls from the emcee and to what the leader says and does with alacrity and enthusiasm. It is also suggested by some of the rituals engaged in by the emcee, as when he scans the gathering after he has called for an experience so as to foster the impression that whom he calls is a spontaneous decision rather than one that has been pre-arranged, as indicated by the fact that those called on are already listed on his meeting agenda and by the fact that members frequently know beforehand whether they will be giving an experience.

This fakery apparently was dropped decades ago; in current SGI (non)discussion meetings, not only is the person acknowledged by name as delivering/"sharing" an "experience", but the person often has it written out on a piece of paper they semi-read off.

But none of this is evident to the guest.

Rather, what transpires - who gives the explanation, who gives testimonies, and so on - is staged in such a way that it all appears as if it is spontaneous and independent of prior planning, negotiation, and decision-making among the members. As a consequence, it seems reasonable to suggest that NSA in general and the district members in particular have something of the character of a secret society.

Only without any special perks or sexiness.

This is not particularly surprising, however, when considering the nature of theatrical-like teamwork. As Erving Goffman noted in his seminal discussion of this kind of work:

... if a performance is to be effective it will be likely that the extent of cooperation that makes this possible will be concealed and kept secret... The audience may appreciate, of course, that all members of the team are held together by a bond that no member of the audience shares ... But (the members of the team) form a secret society ... insofar as a secret is kept as to how they are cooperating together to maintain a particular definition of the situation.

This will all be very familiar to the people trying to recruit new suckers into MLM schemes/scams, too.

The sixth and final consideration suggesting the appropriateness of viewing these meetings from a dramaturgical perspective is the fact that they do not "go on" unless there is an audience, that is unless guests are in attendance.

Before Ikeda was excommunicated by Nichiren Shoshu and transformed the SGI into his own personal worship society, there was a certain "rhythm" to the year. February and August were "Shakubuku Months", and there was an "introductory meeting" scheduled every week. If it came to meeting start time and there was no "guest", the meeting was halted and everybody was sent out to try and find something with a pulse to drag in, at which point the meeting would proceed:

When I first discovered this I was somewhat startled, for I had assumed that these meetings were conducted in their entirety regardless of the presence or absence of a new face. But as I learned one evening, this is not the case. Following the chanting session on this particular evening, the leader emphasized that since these meetings were for guests and none were present, we would have to go out and round up one or two. So the members in attendance were divided into Shakubuku teams and sent out in search of prospects. Although three of the four teams returned empty-handed, one had managed to corral a single guest. But one is all that is needed; and so the formal meeting began as usual.

For "formal meeting" read "sales pitch". By the late-1980s, perhaps earlier, instead of being every discussion meeting, this format was restricted to the "introductory meetings" during the Shakubuku Months. However, he's describing something that happened every single time. No meeting unless a "guest" was present.

During my tenure as a member I saw this particular scenario re-enacted on four different occasions, and on one occasion we were sent back into the streets three times in succession. Around 8:30 p.m., after the third try and with one guest in hand, the show finally got on the road.

The author describes himself as "an active participant observer for nearly a year and a half".

Perhaps even more illustrative of the theatrical character of these meetings and the fact that they are staged for guests is the following course of events that transpired one evening during a meeting I attended:

Although no guests were present when the chanting began, a young couple came in toward the end of the chanting session and situated themselves on the floor at the back of the room. But apparently the emcee didn't notice them; for upon completion of the chanting session he didn't jump up and yell out: 'Welcome to a vigorous and happy meeting of the [name here] District of NSA!' But the district leader, who had apparently seen this couple come in, punched the emcee in the ribs and whispered that some guests were present. And so this member immediately assumed his role of the emcee and proceeded as usual by springing to his feet, putting on a big smile, and blurting out, 'Welcome to a vigorous and happy meeting of the [name here] District of NSA!'

"Vigorous and happy" 🤣

In light of the foregoing considerations and observations, there seems to be little question about the appropriateness of conceptualizing NSA discussion meetings as "shows" or presentations staged by the members, who constitute a performance team, before an audience composed of recruits or "guests".

This was what was going on BEFORE Dickeda swanned into the US in 1990 and "changed our direction" - because of what Sensei did, the bottom fell out of the discussion meetings. Instead of weekly meetings, Dickeata dictated that these meetings would only happen monthly from now on - and of COURSE Die-Sucky Scamsei's word is LAW in his own cult of personality, where the membership follows a PERSON instead of any "law". Post-excommunication, at the (non)discussion meetings I attended, there was at least one guest every single time, but they never came back. The ONLY person I saw join post-excommunication was a formerly homeless woman with two small children who had moved in with an SGI member (who had unethically selected her at the abused-women's shelter she was living at, where he volunteered computer classes for the residents). She was able to see it didn't work; she ended up quitting.
Now what SGI-USA is left with is an ever-shrinking membership of mostly Baby-Boom generation and older individuals who mostly joined during the time period described in this study. SGI has completely lost what vitality it once had; now it's simply waiting around for the grave - and oblivion.

Does believing in physicalism lead to nominalism? Recently I watched a debate where a physicalist was asked about the ontology of logic. They argued that the ontology of logic is in the mind. Their opponent countered that if the ontology of logic is purely in the mind, then anything one predicates as logic becomes logic, because there’s no actual external ontology to it. My question is, can physicalists escape nominalism, or is it unavoidable for them?

1. outsiders - 9.5/10 - incredible. would see it 100 more times… story dragged a bit in second act

2.gatsby - 9/10 - sets,costumes and performances are some of the best this season. book is fine if you’re okay with a different perspective being taken from the original story
3.water for elephants - 8.5/10 - a spectacle. amazing ensemble and cast. music is fine. book is fine. would see it again.
4.who’s tommy - 8/10 - went in blind. loved it. very loud and bright. wasn’t a complete standout compared to other shows i’ve seen. wouldn’t see it again

1. notebook - 8/10 - amazing performances. didn’t love the songs as much as everyone else does. wouldn’t see it again

6.heart of rock n roll - 8/10 - oops yes I’m putting it this high. so much fun, very bright and tons of energy. a fun night out if you’re willing to let loose and just enjoy a silly show. would totally see it again.

1. back to the future - 8/10 - people get mad when they copy the storyline exactly from previous (this show) and then get mad when they steer away from the storyline and try and make it unique (gatsby). either way this show was fine. music was not memorable. I’d go again for the special effects.
   
2. the wiz - 7.5/10 - felt like a touring show that made a stop on broadway (which it is technically). one of the best vocal performances by a cast this season. would see it again for very cheap. cheap shows deserve cheap prices.
   

9.lempicka - 7/10 - I really really really wanted to love it but It didn’t resonate with me too much. the performances are great but found myself bored at moments staring at the ceiling. I wouldn’t see it again.

1. suffs - 7/10 - i’m sorry but way overhyped. I’m all for the message it was trying to convey but it fell flat for me. the mezz was also only like half full when I went this week. Not a good sign for a show who just got nominated for several tony’s. Wouldn’t see it again
   
2. Illinoise - 7/10 - also overhyped in my opinion. the talent on that stage was insane but again, found myself bored at many moments of the show. I’m not into dancing pieces so that’s just my opinion. wouldn’t see it again.
   
3. hell’s kitchen - 3/10 - awful awful awful. wanted to leave at intermission. boring, predicable plot, turns Alicia Keys music into these ballads that didn’t drive the plot at all. Cannot believe the tony love it got. wouldn’t see it again.
   

didn’t see: cabaret once upon a one more time here lies love merrily gutenberg

My grammar states that the vocative of third-declension proper nouns whose stem ends with -ον/-ων is the pure stem with its accent retracted: so for example the vocative of Ἀγαμέμνων, -ονος is Ἀγάμεμνον.
However the vocative of Γλαύκων, -ωνος seems to be identical to the nominative instead. For example, Plato, Symposium 172c has ὦ Γλαύκων. I know of course ὦ can introduce a nominative too, but that's usually when the nominative is accompained by οὗτος, or when a predicative construction is implied (e.g. ὦ γενναῖος in Plato, Phaedrus 227c, such a noble man!). And this doesn't seem to be either of the two cases. Also, no variae lectiones are reported for this passage in critic editions.
Could the reason be that the pure stem of Γλαύκων has omega instead of omicron, and therefore is part of a different cathegory? After all, there's no apophonic variation in the declension (unlike for example Ἀγαμέμνων).
Wiktionary also states the vocative of Γλαύκων is Γλαύκων, and does the same for other third-declension proper nouns ending with -ων and with no apophonic variation such as Πλάτων and Τίμων. However, as usual, it doesn't offer a source for that.
What do you think? Does anyone have better informations?

Many newspapers no longer exist nor remain independent after being bought by hedge funds. Or, in the case of the Washington Post being bought by Bezos the marketing genius that created and allegedly makes $205 million a day.
With this introduction, the following are excerpts from The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler.
“We live in what is called a democracy, rule by the majority of people. A fine ideal if it could be made to work. The people elect, but the party machines nominate, and the party machines to be effective must spend a great deal of money. Somebody has to give it to them, and that somebody, whether it be an individual, a financial group, a trade union or what have you, expects some consideration in return. What I and people of my kind [rich] expect is to be allowed to live our lives in decent privacy. I own newspapers, but I don’t like them. I regard them as a constant menace to whatever privacy we have left. Their constant yelping about a free press means, with a few honorable exceptions, freedom to peddle scandal, crime, sex, sensationalism, hate, innuendo, and the political and financial uses of propaganda. A newspaper is a business out to make money through advertising revenue. That is predicated on circulation, and you know what the circulation depends on.” [Pages 233-234.]
Mr. Potter, father of a murdered daughter, speaking to Phillip Marlowe, one of the most iconic of 20^th Century fictional private eyes created by author Raymond Chandler. Mr. Chandler was born in 1888 and died in 1939.
Source: First Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Edition, August 1992, Paperback – Copyright 1953 by Raymond Chandler. Published in the U.S. by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc. New York, NY.

I was on reddit and I saw this person say "Interesting fact: Standard English translations of John 8:44 obscure the Greek, which reads: ὑμεῖς ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστὲ. With the article preceding πατρὸς, the phrase τοῦ διαβόλου is a genitive phrase modifying the nominal phrase ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς;.. Thus: "You are from the father of the Devil." If the statement were to mean, as the standard English translation renders it, "You are of the father, the Devil," then the article preceding πατρὸς, would not be present. In this case the phrase, "father" would be in the predicate position, a grammatical choice that the author of John makes a few verses later in 8:56 when referencing Abraham: Ἀβραὰμ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν, "Abraham, your father." This literal reading is confirmed by the last segment of the verse (8:44f) which straightforwardly acknowledges the present of two beings, the liar and his father: ὅταν λαλῇ τὸ ψεῦδος, ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων λαλεῖ, ὅτι ψεύστης ἐστὶν καὶ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ. The full verse reasons that the Devil lies since his nature is that of a liar. Why? Because not only is the Devil a liar himself but his father is also a liar. But this is not the sense of the standard English translation which is peculiar and strained. It reads αὐτοῦ as a genitive "it" referring to an unnamed singular antecedent such as "lying" or "falsehood." Thus: πατὴρ αὐτοῦ is rendered in the standard English translation idiosyncratically, "the father of lies." This is incredibly incorrect and dishonest. Aὐτοῦ doesn`t mean “ it” but is a personal pronoun which this context refers to the devil, therefore it should say “the father of the devil” not “the father of lies” https://biblehub.com/greek/846.htm This verse functioned as a calling card for Gnostics who used it as plain evidence that Jesus taught that the Jewish God was the father of the Devil. A number of Gnostics employed this verse to prove that Jesus himself instructed them that there existed a god in addition to Jesus' true Father. This other god is the Old Testament God and is responsible for the generation of the Devil and evil. They insisted that this verse demonstrates that determinism plays a role in human nature, especially in terms of the most wicked people, the apostates. According to these Gnostics, it is a wicked deity - the god the old testament - who fathered both the apostates and the Devil. The early catholics faced a real dilemma when it came to explaining this verse. In order to neutralize it, they insisted that the Greek be read appositionally, "you are from the father, the Devil" even though they confess that reading it this way would be clearer if the genitive article before father were erased. Their ultimate concern is that the scripture cannot say "from the father of the Devil" so they plead that another reading of the text is necessary, a reading that they regard as 'better' than the plain reading. They are so certain that that text means "from the father, the Devil" that they freely render it, "You are sons of the Devil," and attribute these words to Jesus instead of the words found in the scripture. They are uneasy about quoting the Greek in the form it appears in the biblical passage itself. So they tend to substitute for it what they think the passage should say by paraphrasing the passage whenever they reference it. If the author, intended to write “You are sons of the Devil” he would have simply wrote it. If Jesus wanted to say “You are sons of the Devil” he would of said it that way. “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” 1 Corinthians 14:33" What is the argument against this? I have a gnostic friend at school and I want to show him the way the truth and the life :) If anyone has a good detailed answer I would truely truely truely appreciate it!

I was on reddit and I saw this person say "Interesting fact: Standard English translations of John 8:44 obscure the Greek, which reads: ὑμεῖς ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστὲ. With the article preceding πατρὸς, the phrase τοῦ διαβόλου is a genitive phrase modifying the nominal phrase ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς;.. Thus: "You are from the father of the Devil." If the statement were to mean, as the standard English translation renders it, "You are of the father, the Devil," then the article preceding πατρὸς, would not be present. In this case the phrase, "father" would be in the predicate position, a grammatical choice that the author of John makes a few verses later in 8:56 when referencing Abraham: Ἀβραὰμ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν, "Abraham, your father." This literal reading is confirmed by the last segment of the verse (8:44f) which straightforwardly acknowledges the present of two beings, the liar and his father: ὅταν λαλῇ τὸ ψεῦδος, ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων λαλεῖ, ὅτι ψεύστης ἐστὶν καὶ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ. The full verse reasons that the Devil lies since his nature is that of a liar. Why? Because not only is the Devil a liar himself but his father is also a liar. But this is not the sense of the standard English translation which is peculiar and strained. It reads αὐτοῦ as a genitive "it" referring to an unnamed singular antecedent such as "lying" or "falsehood." Thus: πατὴρ αὐτοῦ is rendered in the standard English translation idiosyncratically, "the father of lies." This is incredibly incorrect and dishonest. Aὐτοῦ doesn`t mean “ it” but is a personal pronoun which this context refers to the devil, therefore it should say “the father of the devil” not “the father of lies” https://biblehub.com/greek/846.htm This verse functioned as a calling card for Gnostics who used it as plain evidence that Jesus taught that the Jewish God was the father of the Devil. A number of Gnostics employed this verse to prove that Jesus himself instructed them that there existed a god in addition to Jesus' true Father. This other god is the Old Testament God and is responsible for the generation of the Devil and evil. They insisted that this verse demonstrates that determinism plays a role in human nature, especially in terms of the most wicked people, the apostates. According to these Gnostics, it is a wicked deity - the god the old testament - who fathered both the apostates and the Devil. The early catholics faced a real dilemma when it came to explaining this verse. In order to neutralize it, they insisted that the Greek be read appositionally, "you are from the father, the Devil" even though they confess that reading it this way would be clearer if the genitive article before father were erased. Their ultimate concern is that the scripture cannot say "from the father of the Devil" so they plead that another reading of the text is necessary, a reading that they regard as 'better' than the plain reading. They are so certain that that text means "from the father, the Devil" that they freely render it, "You are sons of the Devil," and attribute these words to Jesus instead of the words found in the scripture. They are uneasy about quoting the Greek in the form it appears in the biblical passage itself. So they tend to substitute for it what they think the passage should say by paraphrasing the passage whenever they reference it. If the author, intended to write “You are sons of the Devil” he would have simply wrote it. If Jesus wanted to say “You are sons of the Devil” he would of said it that way. “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” 1 Corinthians 14:33" What is the argument against this? I have a gnostic friend at school and I want to show him the way the truth and the life :) If anyone has a good detailed answer I would truely truely truely appreciate it!

I'm interested in creating a Uralic constructed language and I need to gather a list of typological and morphosyntactic features to include. Does anyone have any suggestions for key features to include in a Uralic language? Here are some I have so far:

• Strict SOV head-final word order
• Dependent marking
• Negative auxiliary verb
• Nonfinite subordination
• Optional object agreement with verb
• Possessive suffixes
• Extensive derivational morphology
• Nominal predicates
• Modifiers do not agree in case with heads
• Differential object marking
• Copula is not used in the present tense indicative
• Three-way local case distinction
• Morphologically marked impersonal passive

Hi everyone,
I'm a lover of English grammar and especially traditional sentence diagramming. I'm a graphic designer by trade and I'm super interested in re-learning to diagram interesting sentences, scripture verses, music lyrics, etc. and designing them in a nice way for posters/prints.
I need to brush up on parts of the sentence and learn how to diagram them (predicate nominatives, appositives, conjunctions, etc.)
Can anyone share advice on what might be the best place to start? Would a diagramming book do the trick or should I study a grammar book then specifically a diagramming book? Anything that will do both well?
Thanks!

Introduction

A year or so ago I read a comment suggesting that an unmarked negative could be used in a language where the speakers are really lazy but still want to talk about the things they’re not doing. (I think the comment was by u/good-mcrn-ing but I haven’t been able to find it.) The other day that comment popped into my head, and I had a bunch of other ideas. Without further ado, I present the jokelang Lhel, a language of laziness.

Phonology

	Labial	Alveolar		Glottal
		Central	Lateral
Stop	p	t		ʔ ‹q›
	b	d
Nasal	m̥ ‹mh›	n̥ ‹nh›
	m	n
Continuant		s	l̥ ‹lh›
		z	l

This consonant inventory seemed the most mumble-y to me, without having so few phonemes that words would need to be very long.
There are only two vowels, /ə/ ‹e› and /əː/ ‹a›. However, /s/ or any voiced non-plosive can be syllabic, indicated with an apostrophe after the letter(s). The syllable structure is (C)V(C), or (C)S where S is a syllabic consonant. The apostrophe is omitted if there are two consonants in a row where they couldn’t appear unless one were syllabic, and the second is syllabic.

Verbs

Negative by default

The speakers of Lhel, being very lazy, mostly talk about things they aren’t doing. Thus, the negative is unmarked. To indicate that an utterance is not negated, you need the affirmative particle nen.

Mhe zeq.
eat potato.chips
“I’m not eating potato chips.”
Nen mhe zeq.
AFF eat potato.chips
“I am eating potato chips.”

This applies to verbless utterances as well:

A: Nen la! Ma?
AFF walk! 2?
“I’m going to walk around! [Are any of] you [coming]?”
B: Et.
1x
“Not me.”
C: Et. …Nen et, nen la.
1x. …AFF 1x, AFF walk
“No. …Actually yeah, I’ll walk.”

Wants and intentions

Sem marks that the speakers want to do something, but suggests that they aren’t going to. If it appears with nen, that means that the speaker does intend to.

Sem beq.
OPT get.up
“I want to get up (but I don’t think I’m going to).”
Sem nen beq.
OPT AFF get.up
“I want to get up (and I think I’m actually going to).”

Mhamh marks that the speaker doesn’t want to do something:

Mhamh beq.
not.want get.up
“I don’t want to get up.”

Maybe

The particle lheq indicates that something might be the case, but the speaker doesn’t know, probably because they’re too lazy to check.

Nen lheq lhel az.
AFF might comfortable outside
“It might be nice outside.”

It’s also used with temporal or spatial words to indicate that something is so distant the speaker thinks it doesn’t really matter (see “Tense” and “Demonstratives” below).

Counterfactual optatives

Zaq on its own indicates that the speaker wishes something were (or weren’t), but it isn’t so.

A: Zaq beq. Zaq mene beq.
wish get.up. wish have.to get.up
“I wish I hadn’t gotten up. I wish I didn’t have to get up.”
B: Zaq ma ba.
wish 2 say
“I wish you hadn’t said that.”

Tense

Lhel has two tense markers: past sl and future n. These are optional, and aren’t typically used once a context is established. They also often occur on their own. See the below dialogue for examples of both.

A: Sl nen ez les-ap. Nhem.
PST ADD see thing-fly. know
“I saw a bird earlier. I don’t know what kind it was/any more about that.”
B: Se mal?
3 brown?
“Was it brown?”
A: Lheq. Nen mas.
maybe. AFF probably
“Not sure. I think so.”
B: Lheq lham tan. Nen les-ap na.
possible check computer. AFF thing-fly many
“You could look it up on a computer. [Computers know about] many birds.”
A: N.
FUT
“I’m not going to.”
B: Sen. Et pn n.
OPT. 1x also FUT
“I want to. I also am not going to.”

If a tense marker is followed by lheq ‘maybe, I don’t know’ it means the speaker thinks the event is so distant in time that it doesn’t matter.

Sl lheq nen bap mhene lhel.
PST whatever AFF get chair comfortable
“A long time ago I got this comfortable chair.”

Imperatives

Imperatives can be formed with ns, but the more common particle is mem, which asks the listener to ask someone else to do something.

Mem bez baqe; et mhe zeq.
ask.another remove trash; 1x eat potato.chips
“Could you ask someone to take out the trash for me? I’m busy eating potato chips.”

You often find imperatives with tes, a preposition that gives a reward or bribe.

A: Ns tes qebe sel?
IMP for jelly.bean one
“Would you do it if I gave you a jelly bean?”
B: Et, nen tes na.
1x, AFF for many
“No, [but I would] for a lot [of jelly beans].”
A: Et. Ta?
1x. few?
“No. For a few?”
B: Na!
many!
“Many!”
A: Qebe na benh.
jelly.bean many in.reach
“I don’t have many jelly beans here.”
B: Nen, qebe ta.
AFF, jelly.bean few
“Actually, I’ll take the few jelly beans.”

Nouns

Number

Nouns are usually not marked for number. There are a few words that give a quantity, however: sel ‘one’, ta ‘a few’, and na ‘many’. There’s also lepe, which indicates that something is more than expected, or that the speaker only meant to do something a little bit but did a lot instead.

Nen mhe qebe lepe.
AFF eat jelly.bean more.than.expected
“I ate a lot of jelly beans (but I only meant to eat a few).”
Nen dede lepe.
AFF rain more.than.expected
“It’s still raining.” or “It’s raining more than I thought it would.”

Pronouns

Lhel has a very simple pronominal system. There’s a first person pronoun et, which may be singular or plural but excludes the listener; a first person plural inclusive pronoun delh; a second person pronoun ma; and a third person pronoun se. These pronouns are number-indifferent, but can be modified by quantifiers, e.g. ta se ‘a few, a few of them’.

	-listener	+listener
-speaker	se (3)	ma (2)
+speaker	et (1x)	delh (1i)

Demonstratives

Demonstratives in Lhel indicate whether something is in reach of the speaker or listener. Benh ‘here’ is used for things in reach of the speaker, base is for things by the listener, and qene for things out of the reach of both. Demonstratives can’t be used as nouns, e.g. benh is ‘here’ or ‘this (use with noun)’, but not ‘this one’. To express that, you pair it with a third person pronoun: se benh ‘this one’.
Lheq ‘maybe, don’t know’ can be used with qene for things so far away the speaker thinks it doesn’t affect them:

Nen pse-eme qene lheq.
AFF white-sky out.of.reach don’t.know
“There are clouds all the way up there/out there.”

Nominalizing

Currently I’ve made one derivational suffix, the action nominalizer -sm. You can find it in the language’s endonym, Basm Lhel ‘comfortable talking’. (Lhel is an exonym derived from this.)
Note: To speak Lhel is ba lhel ‘talk comfortably’.

Syntax

Basic ordering

The basic ordering is SVO. First person subject are almost always omitted, and many other things are omitted if clear from context. Verbs describing the general environment simply take no subject.

Nen dede-a.
AFF rain-AUG
“It’s raining hard.”

Within a noun phrase, adjectives follow the noun, and determiners come after that. Adverbs come after the verb, or clause finally with a pause before.

Verb particle ordering

As we saw above, Lhel has quite a few pre-verbal particles. The ordering is tense, optative or imperative, then affirmative. Lheq ‘maybe, I’m not sure’ is put before what it modifies, except that it comes after tense and demonstratives when modifying them.

Non-verb predicates

Non-verb predicates simply put the adjective or noun after the subject.

Et mep-azez.
1x person-run
“I’m not an athlete.”
Nen et des.
AFF 1x tired
“I’m tired/sleepy.”
Et le taz.
1x with praiseworthy
“I’m not successful.”

Yes and no

‘Yes’ and ‘no’ are expressed as a pronoun with or without the affirmative marker.

A: Nen dede?
AFF rain?
“Is it raining?”
B: Se/nen se.
3/AFF 3
“No/yes.”

There’s also the particle pn ‘same, also’. On its own it means the speaker is in a similar situation to the one described. This is important for building a sense of connection between speakers.

A: La az.
walk outside
“I’m not walking outside.”
B: Pn.
same
“Same.”

Good Morning All,
On the SLECP-O nomination worksheet there is the member essay "My Desire to Serve as a Commissioned Officer". Is this in addition to section 22 on the form 56 "What are your objectives and reasons for desiring an air force commission"? If so do these need to be distinct from each other? I can't seem to find any details on formatting, page or word limits/requirements, etc. I might just be missing where all the documents mention these things.
Any guidance (links, personal experience, etc) would be immensely helpful. Thank you.

The SPFBO /Fantasy Bingo Card
This is a bingo card filled with entries for the SPFBO, hosted by Mark Lawerence. Twenty-two out of twenty-five boxes are filled with SPFBO Entries with the remaining three slots (Sequel, Short Stories, Novella) each having ties to authors SPFBO entries.
Furthermore, the twenty-two slots are divided. Six of my bingo squares are from the SPFBO9 300 original entries and were mostly read when that section of the competition was active, from which I nominate an unofficial book bingo “Semi-Finalist”. Six Semi-Finalists from various years filled six other bingo slots, from which I pick one “Bingo Finalist”, where were I a judge, I would advance to the finals. Finally, I read ten books that made the finals including three winners, and rated them, giving them scores and picking my favorite from among them.
This is divided in two because reddit limits us to 400,000 characters.
Without Further Ado,
Row 1:
Title With A Title: Fortune’s Fool by Angela Brood
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 5 Runner Up
Once played as a pawn in a deadly game of feuding Houses, Kyrra d’Aliente now makes her living in male guise as the ruthless mercenary Kyris di Nada. Yet hidden beneath her tough exterior lies a woman driven by one thing: the belief that her lost love, killed in the war he fought on her behalf, is still alive. But when Kyrra is offered the chance to assassinate the man who betrayed her, the seductive song of revenge changes everything.
In a world of scheming gods and precarious loyalties, vengeance comes at a deadly cost. As the treacherous web of her past tries to trap her once again, Kyrra must make a choice: kill the man who stole everything from her, or risk everything to save the man she loves.
This book follows Kyrra from a naïve and somewhat stupid heir to a noble family to her life as a mercenary swordswoman. This mixes gods, an Italian Renaissance inspired setting that feels like a more brutal version of the World of the Five Gods.
Kyrra evolves in this series of present day and flash backs, as she pieces together the destruction of her family. Punches are not pulled and not everything is known, and the man who has guided her through her transformation also has some huge secrets that even he doesn’t know.
This is the best book if you want to combine grimdark and romance (Grimantasy?). That is not an easy feat to achieve.
8.5/10
Superhero: Wayfarer by K.M. Weiland
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 6 Semi-Finalist, from Booknest
Think being a superhero is hard? Try being the first one.
Will’s life is a proper muddle—and all because he was “accidentally” inflicted with the ability to run faster and leap higher than any human ever. One minute he’s a blacksmith’s apprentice trying to save his master from debtor’s prison. The next he’s accused of murder and hunted as a black-hearted highwayman.
A vengeful politician with dark secrets and powers even more magical than Will’s has duped all of London into blaming Will for the chilling imprisonments of the city’s poor. The harder Will tries to use his abilities to fight crime, the deeper he is entangled in a dark underworld belonging to some of Georgian England’s most colorful characters.
Only Will stands a chance of stopping this powerful madman bent on “reforming” London by any means necessary. Unfortunately, Will is beginning to realize becoming a legend might mean sacrificing everything that matters.
This book was original, smart, and very much felt like a ‘First’ superhero setting, only with the distinction of being set in 1820s England. Lots of details work, for example, I love how the class distinctions between Will and his love interest and Will and his enemy are not swept under the rug and are important to the plot. Characters are likable and well-developed.
Overall, this is a story that’s slightly feels like the first installment to superhero universe. Sadly, there is no sequel, even though there is plenty of sequel bait at the end.
8/10
Bottom of my TBR: A Handful of Souls by Stephen Rice
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 7 Semi-Finalist from Booknest
Mud, gold and lies. That's all you get in Branera. You'll find no better expert on these things than Lily Kale-Tollworth. Yet she has no clue of the events already in motion around her.
Weeks ago, a murderer with a bleeding grin was released from the Mountain Head. Lily doesn't know this pale-skinned giant has been writing to her. She doesn't even know he's coming to find her. But as her father, Husker Tollworth feels like it's his right.
Days ago, a tax patrol was slaughtered. Lily doesn't know her brother's corpse was pulled from a ditch, stolen by a man who can raise the dead. Lark Kale-Tollworth will follow this bizarre scholar to the Southlands. He will forget how many times he's died.
Hours ago, an informant showed Lily's stepfather an incriminating note. Branera has taxed its villages too hard. An uprising is massing in the Northlands - and they have a noose with Josef Kale's name on it.
At this very moment, Josef is frantically packing their coach, while Lily is drinking whisky in a brothel. She's met the arrogant idiot who will be their guide south. She doesn't know he has a hollow soul, filled with thousands of spirits. She doesn't know his mouth is filled with as many lies.
But if there are three things Lily's good at, it's mud, gold and lies.
This is the story of the Kale-Tollworth family and feels like regency industrial creepy in a good way, rather like Joe Abercrombie’s Age of Madness, but not quite that high on the social ladder. This is intimate, family-level social disruption and chaos.
We get several viewpoints, Lilly who drinks to much, Lark who has been killed and resurrected by a necromancer, their father Husker who has just gotten out of prison for murder, and Dren and all parts are fully realized.
Overall, this is an 8/10.
Historical Setting (Substitution for Magical Realism): Werewolf of Whitechapel by Suzannah Rowntree
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 9 Semi-Finalist, almost finalist from The Weatherwax Report/Critiquing Chemist
A killer stalks the grimy streets of Whitechapel—but Scotland Yard seems determined to turn a blind eye. With one look at her best friend's corpse, Liz Sharp already knows the truth: the killer is a werewolf.
No one important will hold a werewolf accountable—after all, the monsters rule Europe. Certainly, no one will believe a werewolf victim like Liz: the very scars that make her determined to investigate Sal’s death also condemn her as the sort of female who’d sell her blood for easy money.
As it happens, Liz’s best hope for justice might well lie with her emotionally repressed employer, Princess May. Though the princess has connections with werewolf royalty, there’s no one else Liz can turn to. Certainly, she can’t risk trusting the irritatingly personable Inspector Short, who dogs her steps from the slums of Whitechapel to the palaces of St James.
But as corpses mount up, Liz discovers that no one is precisely who she thought: not Sal, not herself, and certainly not the werewolf.
Set in an the late 1800s where most of European Royalty are vampires, werewolves and whatever else, including (secretly, the British Royal Family) Ms. Sharpe is a former werewolf victim, current amnesic, who has spent the last few years training as a bodyguard/ladies maid.
Rowntree does a great job with this intriguing world, setting up the school, the employment, the status and powers of various royal families and mixing it with the details of Whitechapel. The first two-thirds were highly enjoyable and would rate much higher. However, the final third had a lot of ‘jump the shark’ moments involving British Royals being much too differential to a newly hired servant.
If you don’t think this last part will bother you as much, I highly recommend it.
6/10
Young Adult: Regen/Regerate by Cassie Gruetman
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 9 Entry, reviewed twice by Covers With Cassidy (Shout out to Cassidy for allowing two sub-judges to review each book)
After years of being shoved from home to home, sixteen-year-old Trisha Penchant finally found a foster family that she won’t admit she loves. Life is looking up. Until the night she wakes up in the woods covered in blood.
Her supernatural ability saved her life. But it put her on the radar of the Faerie Council, who give her an ultimatum. Catch an escaped fugitive, or be taken to Faerie, a place her missing mother told her horror stories about. Trying to appease the Council, keeping her powers hidden from her foster parents, and learning to work with the ex-boyfriend who killed her, Trisha's brushes with death are on the rise.
Pushed to the brink, she struggles to walk a fine line of doing what’s right, and doing what’s necessary.Her choices will change lives. Forever.
This is a perfectly decent, and professional YA book that I think is typical of a lot of books that get a half paragraph from various sub-judges and are then quickly passed over. Trisha is a Faerie who has been part of the foster care system. Before that she traveled around with her faerie mother as a fugitive.
The problem with this book is that while it doesn’t do anything particularly badly, it doesn’t do anything particularly well. The faerie feel remarkably mundane, Trisha doesn’t feel like a foster kid, and the foster parents she supposedly bonds with after evading their questions don’t seem a little too good to be true.
5.5/10
Row 2
Mundane Jobs: Out Of Nowhere by Patrick LeClerc
SPFBO Standing: Finalist SPFBO 4
Healer Sean Danet is immortal—a fact he has cloaked for centuries, behind enemy lines and now a paramedic’s uniform. Having forgotten most of his distant past, he has finally found peace—and love. But there are some things you cannot escape, however much distance you put behind you. When Sean heals the wrong man, he uncovers a lethal enemy who holds all the cards. And this time he can’t run. It’s time to stand and fight, for himself, for his friends, for the woman he loves. It’s time, finally, for Sean to face his past—and choose a future. A story of love, of battle—and of facing your true self when there’s nowhere left to hide.
This is the story of Sean, an EMT who just happens to be an immortal with a healing factor. He moves around on a regular basis and changes his names every few years, i.e. the standard immortal story we’ve seen. He is old enough to have no memory of his origin, which allows for a very non-specific background and very vaguely Slavic feeling criminals who know who he is and begin to hunt him. He eventually deals with this threat with a Highlander style duel and a pledge to stay out of the drug trade said criminals deal with locally.
If this story has a flaw, it’s that Sean is simply someone who, though he cares about his immediate friends, has no heroic pretensions and very little reason for us to cheer for him other than being the designated protagonist.
Some readers may also be put off by the language. It uses very contemptuous descriptions of gays, trans, and cops (and probably a few others I’ve forgotten) but which are keeping with the blue color, urban subculture of the setting. This may be off putting to some readers.
5/10
2000s: A Donkey, A Stablehand, and An Empire
SPFBO Standing: Entrée, SPFBO 9 entry, reviewed by Fantasy Book Critic
Carson Barker certainly doesn't think so, and appoints himself into the unenviable role of imperial translator.
However, it isn't going to be an easy ride. With assassins, blood-thirsty fishmongers and furious homemakers around every corner, each seeking to be the first to kill the new regent and seize the throne for themselves, Carson finds himself squarely in the firing line by association.
Little do they know this is no ordinary donkey, and the future of the Empire, possibly even the world, rests on Carson's ability to keep this extraordinary animal alive.
Will he manage to save his ass? Find out in the witty and action-packed book one of the Three Crowns series.
The people of Ostera find themselves saddled with a new, Regent, known as Regent Donkey the First - keeper of the lands through 'right of conquest' until another takes his place -accepting a stablehand as 'official translator'.
Story comes down to whether you want to kill the ass or save the ass, and whether being ruled by an ass is being any different than being ruled by a human.
It also manages to be short, so the jokes don’t get stale.
This book manages fun in a Monty Python Sort of way with and underlying Pratchett sort of thoughtful/serious.
8/10
Angels And Demons: Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater
SPFBO Standing: Winner, SPFBO 8
Gadriel, the fallen angel of petty temptations, has a bit of a gambling debt. Fortunately, her angelic bookie is happy to let her pay off her debts by doing what she does best: All Gadriel has to do is tempt miserably sinless mortal Holly Harker to do a few nice things for herself.
What should be a cakewalk of a job soon runs into several roadblocks, however, as Miss Harker politely refuses every attempt at temptation from Gadriel the woman, Gadriel the man, and Gadriel the adorable fluffy kitten. When even chocolate fails to move Gadriel’s target, the ex-guardian angel begins to suspect she’s been conned. But Gadriel still remembers her previous job… and where petty temptations fail, small miracles might yet prevail.
SPFBO 8 winner and a deserving one, though not my top choice. This is a nice feel-good story that is short and touching. Gadriel is likeable as a relatively good demon whose only crime is doubting God. The other protagonist is Holly, who has too much on her plate with her niece, daughter of her late sister whom she had very little in common.
Atwater deliberately modeled this book on the late Terry Pratchett and so the tone varies from light on the surface, but with a deeper meaning built-in and in this sense it works. The character work is excellent and the plot is well thought out.
I had the misfortune of getting the audio version which has since been removed from sale, it was so bad. But fortunately, I finished the PDF. This is one book where format really matters.
8.5/10
Five Short Stories:
All taken from the Anthology Alchemy of Sorrow, Edited by Sarah Chorn which features stories dealing with grief and loss and is highly recommended. I divided the 13 stories between this and my standard bingo card. The five I chose for this are—
A Matter of Trust by Angela Brood
The Witch in the Woods by Quenby Olsen
Death in The Uncanny Valley by M.L. Wang
Summer Souls by Clayton Snyder
The Paperweight Watch by Krystle Matar
Favorites were A Matter of Trust, about a divorced mercenary who finds healing through helping a mother with her young children. The Paperweight Watch, about a young man seeing to his deceased parents business through interactions with the employees of his family business that he’ll not be involved with on a regular basis.
My ultimate favorite was Thicker Than Water by Carol Park, about a young man labeled an evil sorcerer who sees his parents and siblings turn on him and has to start over.
9/10
Horror: Patronus by Dyrk Ashton
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 2 Finalist
When a local hospital is attacked by strange and frightening men, Fiona Patterson and Zeke Prisco save a catatonic old man named Peter—and find themselves running for their lives with creatures beyond imagination hounding their every step.
With nowhere else to turn, they seek out Fi’s enigmatic Uncle Edgar. But the more their questions are answered, the more they discover that nothing is what it seems—not Peter, not Edgar, perhaps not even themselves.
The gods and monsters, heroes and villains of lore—they’re real. And now they’ve come out of hiding to hunt their own. In order to survive, Fi and Zeke must join up with powerful allies against an ancient evil that’s been known by many names and feared by all. The final battle of the world’s oldest war has begun.
This is a book that is about mythology, all of them, Odin, Lancelot, the Minotaur, Baphomet, Quetzalcoatl, Ganesha, and is one of those books is hard to describe and very good.
And it starts all very normal, except for some strange cuts to Asia Minor which involve the Minotaur. Fi works in a nursing home, Zeke is a few years older and volunteers as a musician. They are starting to date, and pretty soon they’re under siege in said nursing home from supernatural baddies.
They’re all going after a senile patient at the nursing home. He happens to be God, but he’s senile so they can’t ask his help at first. This is very much horror at first, then it becomes weird Urban Fantasy, but this is not the Urban Fantasy of sexy vampires, but scary and stisturbing fever dream with real stakes.
There are some flaws. The power dynamic changes when Peter, the old man/god wakes up and the ending seems inevitable. The book feels like it was written by a guy who was eighteen in about 1975. But these are minor drawbacks.
8/10
Row 3
Self Publish or Indie Publisher: Steal The Sun by SM Carter
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 9 Entry Reviewed by Domish Books for Team Bookborn.
Domish also gets my award for best ‘sub-judge’.
When Raik, the most cunning smuggler this side of the desert, finds where the Ivory King vaults his magical runes—he builds a crew to execute an elaborate heist.
Among them is Kahli Mahanta, a religious assassin with blind ambition. A young rogue, Kirin, with wit sharper than his arrows ought to be. And Amara, the so-called Nightspirit, whose raven-hair conceals even darker secrets.
It won't be easy. They’re opposed by the curved blades of the magic-deranged, watched by a paranoid king, and hunted by gaunt beasts that click in the cold desert night... All the while discovering that trusting each other might be the most dangerous mission of all.
To Steal The Sun is a tale of unlikely heroes thrust together in a new refreshing fantasy. One cast in vibrant silks, fragrant spice, and the relentless glare of a radiant sun.
Steal the Sun is a heist, and it works. This is a very interesting Middle Eastern inspired world. I didn’t love it by I did enjoy it, but I think learned that the semi-D&D party isn’t my thing.
What worked was the Rune magic system and issues of addiction to magic. Characters were enjoyable but didn't blow me away. Seven months later, I am having minimal interest in this book and struggling to recall the details.
That says something there, one which is I should take better notes.
6/10
Set In the Middle East: Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Aktar
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 7 Semi-finalist and last eliminated by Fantasy Book Critic
They took his daughter, so Micah comes to take their kingdom. Fifty thousand gun-toting paladins march behind him, all baptized in angel blood, thirsty to burn unbelievers.
Only the janissaries can stand against them. Their living legend, Kevah, once beheaded a magus amid a hail of ice daggers. But ever since his wife disappeared, he spends his days in a haze of hashish and poetry.
To save the kingdom, Kevah must conquer his grief and become the legend he once was. But Micah writes his own legend in blood, and his righteous conquest will stop at nothing.
When the gods choose sides, a legend will be etched upon the stars.
The fact that this book has done very well since being eliminated says a lot.
First thing you need to know that this book is grimdark. How dark? Well, there is a scene about a third in that is darker than the Red Wedding. There is a wonderful/horrible detail involving horses that is necessary to save their lives, but diminishes them.
Yet all the Grimdark is like this, not banal, but understandable from the PoV being described. It is never grim for grims sake.
Plus there is lots more going on, from rival royal courts modeled on Turkish and Byzantine courts, women who are products of sexist societies that perfectly balance being products of such societies yet also being ‘strong’, fully realized people. There are nomads and merchants. There is a very good romance and lots of stakes. Religions that are modeled on Sunni Islam and Orthodox Christianity yet are their own thing.
This is one of the two most fully realized SPFBO reads in creating a worlds that closely resembles a historical societies well. It is up there with the likes of Guy Gavriel Kay in that regard.
Only concern other than the grimdark, is that one two main PoV is a straight-out villain. The other is a flawed protagonist on a redemption arc. Some may find him too flawed to cheer for. If so, this book might not be for you.
9.5/10, and I very much considered a 10. Not only my favorite Semi Finalist, but the best book on this card.
Published in 2023: Mountain of Souls By Marcus Lee
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 9 Entry, reviewed by Phillip Chase
Within the depths of the Mountain of Souls, orphans are raised to be remorseless assassins. Abandoned by a society ravaged by endless war and greed, hundreds die during selection so that a determined few, honed by training and enchantment, can ascend to join The Chosen.
Malina is one of those orphans.
Cursed with yellow eyes and deathly pale skin, she is neither popular nor strong and is certain to die on her first day, broken and forgotten like so many before her.
Fate, however, has other, far more reaching plans for Malina than a quick death. The return of The Once and Future King is imminent, The Chosen are pivotal to his ascension, and no two destinies have ever been more intricately entwined.
Yet what happens if the path laid out before her is not the one she decides to take?
I have read this entire trilogy, so I liked the book and I recommend the series.
This book follows Malina, an orphan girl bought by a cult of snake people. Hundreds are bought, ten survive, including Malina, and gradually she and her fellow survivors are brainwashed and trained to be assasins for this cult, servants of the Once and Future King whose return is imminent and will bring about world of equality for all humanity.
Yet Malina has something within her, that suggests that being an assasin might be a bad thing, yet her brainwashing keeps her from straight out wondering ‘are we the baddies?’ and Lee does a great job of making us sympathize with our brainwashed cultists.
This is my “Semi-Finalist” from my Six SPFBO reads.
8/10
Multiverses: Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 8 Runner Up
Cruel gods rule the steam-powered city of Chime, demanding worship and tribute from their mortal subjects. Kayl lost her faith in them long ago, and now seeks to protect vulnerable and downtrodden mortals from their gods’ whims. But when Kayl discovers powers that she didn’t know she had—and destroys a mortal’s soul by accident—she becomes Chime’s most wanted.
Quen’s job was to pursue sinners, until the visions started. Haunted by foreboding images of his beloved city’s destruction, Quen hunts soul-sucking creatures made of aether who prey on its citizens—and Kayl is his number one target.
To ensure Chime’s future, Kayl and Quen must discover the truth of Kayl’s divine abilities before the gods take matters into their own hands.
For a city that bows to cruel gods, it’ll take godless heathens to save it.
This is the only book I read twice. Once when SPFBO8 was winding down and again at the end of March to see if it was as good as I remembered.
I liked it more the second time.
First off, this setting contains no humans. Instead, twelve races with different abilities created by twelve gods on twelve worlds inhabit Chime, which is centered around a gate that spends an hour connected to each world twice daily, allowing for comrence and transport.
Every race is equal, only some races are more equal than others. Every god demands a tithe from the people they’ve created and some can be quite merciless if that tithe is not met.
Everyone vanishes when they die, going back to their god. Only, now, sometimes, they are not, the soul utterly destroyed.
Kayl has two problems. First she is a member of the Godless, and underground movement that wishes to be free of their Gods, committing the twin sins of blasphemy and apostacy. She has also accidently killed her employer and destroyed her soul, and she has no idea how she did that.
Quen is a Warden (i.e. Cop) tasked with capturing her, the other Godless, only he has some secrets. I am making this book sound complicated and boring.
It is snarky, sexy, beautifully anti-authoritarian, complicated in a way that balances wildly imaginative with easy to keep track of. We are get excerpts from dossiers and Godless tracts at the start of each chapter. We are exposed to every species in this setting and every one of them comes alive.
Also, Quen and Kayl are genuinely good likable people in difficult circumstances. They are easy to cheer for and the stakes they face are real.
The only ‘flaw’ in this book may be tied to why you read fantasy. If you read in hopes of sometimes having your mind blown, this is the book for you. If you read it because you like predictable tropes and familiar settings, you will find less of that here.
9.5/10 my champion of finalists and 2nd place overall on this card.
POC Author: The Dragon Charmers Apprentice by JC Kang
SPFBO Standing: SPFBO 8 Semi-Finalist from Queens Book Asylum
A slave shall rise from the ashes to master dragons.
Born into slavery, Mai's horizons are limited to one simple desire: to catch the eye of a handsome mate. She dares not dream for more, for like all humans, she’s been taught from birth that her life belongs to the orcs, her destiny to serve.
But her world is upended when Aralas, a messenger from the elf gods, reveals blasphemous truths: humanity was created to be free; and hope—if it can be called that—lies in the jaws of the dragon Avarax, whom only Mai can charm with her unique voice.
Torn, overwhelmed, desperate to hope yet terrified of failing her kind, Mai has until a rare conjunction of moons to master magic that takes lifetimes to learn. Yet how will she discover who she really is when even her allies seek to control her?
Only by making the greatest of sacrifices will she manifest the power of a Dragon Song, and help mankind escape eternal servitude.
Standard, free the already conquered world story with an Asian theme. Okay, not very original but I’m intrigued. Mai is taken to a hidden village to be trained as a singedragon charmer by Aralas, an ‘Elf-Angel’ a centuries old magical teacher who helps his various students improve their skills. This set up is convincing, in a very YA sort of way. It works out predicably well.
Then we get to why I can genuinely recommend five out six semi-finalists and this is number six.
All of Aralas’ mostly female students have slept with their centuries-old teacher, said teacher tells Mai that such a liaison is inevitable, and enhances magical abilities.
Just a hard no. 2/10. Please pass the brain bleach.
Link to Part 2
​

Throwing my hat into the ring on determining who may be the ghoul, I've gone over all the suspects, ranking them from innocent to possible suspects (in my opinion), along with the assumptions I used in my reasoning.
Assumptions

1. The ghoul is the only supernatural being in the chapter house that poses a threat – another being adds complexity and they represent an unknown unknown without proper proof they even exist.
2. Occam is correct, there are no other methods to access the archives aside from the main door – the ghoul would have gotten into the archives long before Big D and his family arrived if this was true and stolen the information.
3. The ghoul had instructions from the Camarilla not to kill Occam – makes most sense for Occam being choked out while Fatigue was killed. Perhaps from a concern of a mage death curse, as Big D mentioned in the Supernatural Primer Audiolog.

Innocent
Big D, Markus, and Kitten – Obvious, they were not present at the chapter house for the year, were away from the two attacks and followed by the audience for the majority of the time in between.
Door and Boy – The same reasoning as the rest of their family, along with them not being present for the entirety of both attacks.
Remould and Brokham Blacklaw – Also present away from the two attacks and with multiple alibis with each other and Giles for Occams attack, and Big D, Markus, Kitten, and Grimaline for the attack on Fatigue.
Occam – One of the victims of the attacks and a known solar sorcerer, Occam is the least likely of the members to be a ghoul and likely would have dismissed Big D’s accusation if he was the ghoul.
​
Unlikely suspects
Grimaline – While absent for much of the time when the attack on Occam could have occurred, she has no archive access, was close to big D and Remold when everyone was exiting the archives (precluding an immediate attack before the doors closed), and was present with Brok, Kitten and Markus when Fatigue was attacked.
Harry – Present with Markus for much of the time that Occam’s attack could have happened but not fully accounted for when Fatigue was attacked. May have alibi with Matilda and Dr Waters.
Amanda and Matilda – Both have alibis with each other for much of the time when Occam could have been attacked, along with an alibi with Kitten briefly toward the end. Amanda was incapacitated during the attack on Fatigue and Matilda was nominally with Dr Waters and/or Harry attending to Occam during Fatigue’s attack, although this is not verified. Neither have archive access, making the potential of Occam’s attack difficult to justify without assuming an immediate and rapid attack before the archives were sealed.
Lester – Not confirmed to be cannon, only present in censored version of the episode, although unaccounted for during the entire episode.
Fatigue – While he has archive access and was absent for much of the time when Occam could have been attacked, his death during the second attack largely precludes him from suspicion, with many theories on why he could be the ghoul predicated on another supernatural being (commonly a Garou (werewolf)) killing him.
​
Possible suspects
Elise – While she does not have archive access, she has shown proficiency on stealing items, pilfering keys, a wallet, and cigarettes from Giles, meaning getting archive access by stealing Fatigue’s or Dr Waters keys is a possibility. That and she was absent from view during both attacks, raising the likelihood of her being the ghoul above the suspects mentioned before.
Giles – While lacking archive access, he was towards the back of those exiting the archive, so him attacking Occam before the archives were resealed is possible, if unlikely if he is supposed to have also gotten the data the Camarilla want in the same timeframe. He is supposedly locked in the toilet during Fatigue’s attack, although this could be faked with the use of secret passageways.
Spit – Also towards the back of those exiting the archives, he is also directly present at the site of Fatigue’s death. Suggestions have been raised on whether he is an imbued, which may explain some of his behaviour, but his behaviour could also be an early sign of vampiric blood withdrawal or potentially his master being a Malkavian (bit out there). Him being a recent hire makes him less likely than some of the others though, although he could be a replacement for the ghoul Kevin knew was here.
Dr Waters – Has archive access, was unaccounted for during most of the window for Occam’s attack, was nominally with Harry and Matilda attending to Occam but we have no confirmation of this yet. Of the known suspects, Dr Waters is the most likely to be a Ghoul in my opinion.
​
Wildcard theory – They’re in your walls
A small personal theory of mine, I suggest that none of the characters we have met are the ghoul, with the ghoul being a former member of staff hiding out in the secret passages of the chapter house. Spit is mentioned to be a recent hire, so he could have been hired to replace the ghoul if they had “not shown up for work”/”resigned”, taking the opportunity to hide in the secret passages.
They may have attacked Occam by sneaking into the archives along with the other characters, using the archives opening to get across the only door and hide. Once they and Occam were sealed in, they would have plenty of time to incapacitate Occam, steal the required data, and then wait for the others to open the door, escaping back into the passages while everyone else was focused on Occam. Killing Fatigue may have been a ploy to frame Spit or to encourage infighting, with the objective being to lift the lockdown and escape back to the Camarilla.
This theory has no proof aside from being a possibility, as aide from claw marks on potential secret passage entrances (in Occam’s office ceiling and under the stairs that Big D emerged from with his Dodo paper), there has been little evidence of what is in the secret passageways, which may be an area explored in the next episode.
​
I may have missed a few points, so I could be wrong on some of my assumptions and reasoning with my ranking.

Welcome to the Peanut Gallery! Today I’d like to focus on the savage beatdown Ukraine dispensed in the Avdiivka direction.
Please remember that I know nothing.
Correction(s):
Two today. Let’s start with the important one.
I want to apologize for flaking on last night's issue. I woke this morning with the intent of hammering out the rest of the post, then found myself sucked away as a thousand other obligations in my life made themselves known. I’ve got a nasty habit of overcommitting myself (time is a nebulous concept to my conscious experience) and that really came back to bite me in the ass . Every time I sat down, something else popped up, and now here I find myself at our usual meeting place...wondering where the day went.
Next, as External_Reaction314 correctly pointed out, Orthodox and Catholic Easters fall on the same day, but they disagree upon the number of days in a year. Orthodox Christianity follows something called a Julian Calendar, a stupid and wrong calendar.
"Storyteller, what the hell is your problem with another culture’s calendar?” you may be asking yourself, and to that I have to say: it’s eleven minutes off. Every year it’s eleven minutes less accurate, meaning that their seasons gradually shift in terms of months. Imagine, if you will, fall in July, winter in August, and summer all the time thanks to global warming.
Granted, we’re talking thousands of years to experience significant seasonal drift, but let’s have some consistency, yeah? December is Christmas because December means winter. If we mess with the date, then all of our songs are wrong, and have you heard the new shit they’re pumping out? It’s awful. If I have to hear ‘Santa Baby’ one more time I’ll fuckin’ lose it.
Anyway, this correction is relevant because I made some comments the other day which referenced Easter and Russia’s spring conscription as possibly being related. Apparently they are not.
Ukraine:

Ukrainian forces appear to have repelled a Russian battalion-sized mechanized assault near Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, on March 30 — the first battalion-sized mechanized assault since Russian forces began the campaign to seize Avdiivka in late October 2023.
A Ukrainian serviceman reported on March 31 that Russian forces, including elements of the Russian 6th Tank Regiment (90th Tank Division, Central Military District [CMD]), committed 36 tanks and 12 BMP infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) to a large-mechanized assault near Tonenke on March 30.
Geolocated imagery published on March 31 shows a large number of destroyed and damaged Russian armored vehicles and tanks along a road northwest of Tonenke (west of Avdiivka). The Ukrainian serviceman stated that Ukrainian forces destroyed 12 Russian tanks and eight IFVs during the assault and noted that the frontal assault failed to break through the Ukrainian line.

Yep, we’re starting with yesterday’s news because this shit is important.
The quote is for a ‘batallion sized’ force, meaning about a thousand attackers. It’s an assault roughly on the scale of the initial attacks on Avdiivka. And just like Avdiivka, Ukraine kicked Putin teeth down his throat.
Ukraine's resilience implies two things:

1. Russia is willing to commit significant resources to keep up pressure. While this should, nominally, be a period of rest and reconstitution following a major offensive, the Kremlin is nevertheless maintaining a pattern of constant assaults. These assaults result in marginal gains, but the cost to men and material is significant. Each life lost, each turret tossed will be one less in Putin’s imaginary summer offensive.
   
2. Ukraine established a defensive hardpoint in Tonenke. If the settlement wasn’t sufficiently fortified, then they’d have abandoned it under an armored battalion's worth of pressure.
   

Unfortunately, despite the savage beatdown Ukraine inflicted, Russia will likely be back soon. Very soon. Lately the Kremlin’s been switching up their assault doctrine; rather than target one hamlet, they’re alternating between two. At the moment their objectives are Kupyansk via Lyman and continuous pressure upon Avdiivka’s (supposedly) unfortified outskirts.
This changeup strikes me as a clever way for Putin to compensate for his army’s limitations. By rapidly cycling offensive units in and out, he's able to maintain pressure, ensure every attack is made with fresh units, and improve morale with frequent recovery. And as a bonus it makes it easier for the Kremlin to assess actual losses following each attack.
All-said, Putin must be patting himself on the back. Top-down? It’s a genius move. Tactically, however, it’s asenine.
Yes, each blow hits hard, but now they're predictable. New arrivals have no time to learn the lay of the land, get to know the terrain and formulate a way to overcome the local defenses. It’s attack-rest-attack-rest on a fixed schedule. Yeah, you ease the burden on local logistics, but at the cost of handing Ukrain an opportunity to dig-in, assess, respond, reinforce, and smoke.
Constant pressure won Prigozhin Bakhmut, and constant pressure eventually broke Avdiivka, but this isn’t constant pressure, is it? It’s alternating strikes, switching from the hydraulic press to the jackhammer. Its success will be predicated upon the severity of Ukraine’s equipment shortages.

A joint investigation by 60 Minutes, the Insider, and Der Spiegel strongly suggests that the Kremlin has waged a sustained kinetic campaign directly targeting US government personnel both in the United States and internationally for a decade, with the likely objective of physically incapacitating US government personnel.
The investigation, which the outlets published on March 31, indicates that the infamous Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) Unit 29155 (the same unit whose operatives attempted to assassinate Sergei Skripal with the Novichok nerve agent in the United Kingdom in 2018) may be using nonlethal directed energy or acoustic weapons to target a large number of US government personnel, each of whom has reported experiencing an “anomalous health incident” (also called “Havana Syndrome”) of varying severity between 2014 and as recently as 2023.

This isn’t hybrid warfare. It’s warfare. We just aren't ready to admit it.
To be honest, I don’t know how this is going to end. The United States hasn’t overtly accused the Kremlin yet, but you can be damn certain Biden’s mulling over our response. We might not even publicly comment—we seem to be doing that less and less lately. Knowing Biden, he’ll respond behind the scenes. Macron’s talk about a coalition sending troops into Ukraine isn’t an idle threat. It’s a reality which can become very real very quickly if America decides to throw their weight behind the initiative.
I say do it. I say we send in a few fixed-wings and give Ukraine back her skies.

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi stressed that materiel shortages from delays in Western security assistance are constraining Ukrainian forces and forcing Ukraine to conduct a strategic defense.

Please give Ukraine what they need to bring this war to an end.
‘Q’ for the Community:

• How should NATO respond to this Havanna Syndrome assault? Do you favor direct intervention in Ukraine?

• Join the conversation of on /TheNuttySpectacle!

a ? an exclamation such as ah, oh, or ha a ? used for emphasis, emotion or confirmation a ? used to denote emotion, to emphasize or confirm the preceding word, phrase or sentence, in conjunction with the written exclamation mark or replacing it akesi ? herptile, reptile, amphibian akesi ? a scary or ugly creature akesi ? reptilian, amphibian, or otherwise resembling as such akesi ? to be or turn into a reptile or amphibian ala ? nothing, nothingness ala ? negation ala ? zero ala ? no, none ala ? hardly ala ? to do nothing ala ? to nullify, to annihilate, to erase, delete ala ? not ala ? no, not ala ? used between a reduplicated verb to mark a yes-no question ala ? no alasa ? to hunt, either violently or nonviolently alasa ? to collect, to forage, to gather, to harvest alasa ? to search, to seek, to pursue, to chase, to explore alasa ? to try to, to attempt alasa ? hunt, forage alasa ? search, pursuit, quest alasa ? hunting, foraging alasa ? searching ale ? alias for ali ale ? everything, anything ale ? life, existence ale ? the universe, everything that exists ale ? abundance, plenty ale ? all, every, each, any ale ? entire, whole, complete, full, total ale ? abundant, countless, bountiful, plentiful ale ? universal ale ? comprehensive, thorough ale ? general ale ? to pervade, to be everything or in every part ale ? to commodify, to make universal or thorough ale ? to generalize ale ? one hundred anpa ? bottom, floor anpa ? underside, the area beneath anpa ? to lower anpa ? to bow down anpa ? to defeat anpa ? low, at the bottom anpa ? down, downwards anpa ? humble, lowly anpa ? down ante ? difference, distinction ante ? change, alteration, variation ante ? transformation, transition, adaptation, conversion ante ? contrast, counterpart ante ? to differ, to distinguish ante ? to change, to alter, to modify, to edit ante ? to transform, to adapt, to adjust, to convert ante ? other, separate ante ? different, distinct, unlike ante ? altered, changed, modified ante ? opposed ante ? differently ante ? used before la, otherwise, or else ante ? used before la, used to change subject, anyway anu ? or, either anu ? to choose, to decide anu ? choice, selection, election awen ? to stay, to remain awen ? to wait awen ? to keep, to retain awen ? to preserve, to protect, to conserve, to defend awen ? to continue, to keep on awen ? unmoving, stationary, sedentary, still awen ? permanent, remaining, enduring awen ? waiting, pause awen ? safe, protected, defence awen ? left (remaining) awen ? a wait, stay awen ? protection, safety awen ? endurance awen ? amen e ? Precedes the direct object e ? and (between multiple direct objects) en ? and (chiefly between subjects) epiku ? humorous, epic, cool, awesome epiku ? epicness, the quality or state of being epic epiku ? to be, or to turn epic esun ? shop, store, market, fair, bazaar, retail, place of business esun ? transaction, trade, deal, sale, purchase, commerce esun ? business, enterprise, franchise, company esun ? to exchange, trade, to barter esun ? to exchange for money, to buy, to sell esun ? of or relating to business, commercial, financial esun ? traded, exchanged ijo ? a thing ijo ? object, item, entity, element, stuff ijo ? matter, substance, material ijo ? idea, action, phenomenon ijo ? sentient being ijo ? situation ijo ? something, anything ijo ? to be or turn into an object, to objectify ijo ? to do something ike ? bad, unnecessary ike ? wrong, evil, mean ike ? harmful, unhealthy, nasty ike ? unneeded, irrelevant ike ? conflicting with the philosophy of Toki Pona, overly complex, especially to its detriment ike ? badness, evil ike ? bad state or condition ike ? problem, issue, error ike ? negativity ike ? to be bad, to suck ike ? to make bad or worse, to worsen ike ? to make overly complex ike ? oh no, oh dear ike ? woe, alas ilo ? tool, device, machine, instrument ilo ? technology, software, app ilo ? to be or turn into a tool, to use ilo ? mechanical, technological insa ? inside, centre, core insa ? internal organ, stomach insa ? in between insa ? content insa ? inner, internal insa ? central, core insa ? neutral insa ? to be inside insa ? to insert, to put, or send inside jaki ? gross, disgusting, nasty, repulsive, obscene jaki ? dirty, unclean, unsanitary, filthy jaki ? toxic, infectious jaki ? unhealthy, sickly jaki ? dirt, filth, junk jaki ? garbage, pollution, waste, feces jaki ? infection, disease, bacteria, virus jaki ? to be or to turn dirty, to pollute jaki ? ew, yuck jan ? person jan ? human (Homo sapiens) jan ? a being with equivalent sentience to a human, such as an alien, or that was or sometimes is a human, such as a werewolf jan ? somebody, anybody jan ? of or relating to humans jan ? personal jan ? to turn into a person or human form, to personify, to anthropomorphize jan ? to personalize jasima ? to reflect, to resound, to echo jasima ? to be on the opposite/polar end of jasima ? reflection, mirror, echo jasima ? opposite, reverse jelo ? the color yellow jelo ? to be or turn yellow jelo ? yellow, yellowish jelo ? orange, golden jo ? to have, to contain, to own jo ? to hold in one's hand, to carry, to grasp, to grip jo ? to equip jo ? possession, ownership jo ? property, that which is possessed jo ? contents jo ? possessed, owned, carried, contained kala ? sea creature, an aquatic or semiaquatic animal, such as fish kala ? aquatic mammals, such as whales and dolphins kala ? aquatic, marine, semiaquatic kala ? swimming kala ? to be or turn into a sea creature kala ? to swim kalama ? sound, noise kalama ? music, song kalama ? voice, scream kalama ? utterance, recitation kalama ? to be or to make noise, to make sound kalama ? to play (an instrument) kalama ? to recite, to utter aloud kama ? arrival, the coming of kama ? the future kama ? to come, to arrive kama ? to happen, to come to pass kama ? to cause to happen, to bring about, to summon kama ? to become kama ? to manage kasi ? plant, such as an herb or tree, vegetation kasi ? part of a plant, such as a leaf or wood kasi ? thing resembling a plant, such as fungi or coral kasi ? of or related to plants, botanical kasi ? made of or including plant matter, herbal, vegetated kasi ? to be or to turn into a plant kasi ? to grow as a plant, to vegetate ken ? can, may, to be allowed ken ? to be able or possible ken ? to allow, to enable ken ? permission ken ? ability, capability ken ? possibility, chance, luck ken ? possible ken ? maybe, perhaps kepeken ? using, with, by means of, via kepeken ? use, utilization kepeken ? to use, to utilize, to interact kepeken ? used kijetesantakalu ? procyonid, such as a raccoon, coati, kinkajou, olingo, ringtail or cacomistle kijetesantakalu ? musteloid, such as a ferret, weasel, otter, or red panda kijetesantakalu ? an animal that resembles a procyonid, such as a lemur or raccoon dog kili ? fruit, vegetable, nut, edible part of a plant other than a grain kili ? offspring, result, product kili ? fungus, mushroom kili ? to be or to turn into a fruit kili ? to fruiten kili ? to result kin ? alias for a kin ? also, too, as well kin ? indeed, really kin ? also, additionally kin ? me too kin ? indeed, really kipisi ? to split or sever kipisi ? to cut, to slice kipisi ? part, piece, portion, cut kipisi ? separation, division kiwen ? a hard object, such as metal, wood, bone or plastic kiwen ? rock, stone, mineral kiwen ? hard, tough kiwen ? solid kiwen ? of or relating to rocks, rocky kiwen ? to be or turn into a rock ko ? semisolid or powdery substance, paste, powder, goo, clay ko ? shape or mass that sticks or clings, a clot, a thick or viscous lump, a clump that can be reshaped ko ? semisolid, squishy ko ? powdery ko ? to stick, to cling ko ? to turn to goo or powder, to squash, pulverize kokosila ? to speak a language other than Toki Pona in an environment where Toki Pona is more appropriate kon ? gas, air, steam, smoke kon ? scent, fragrance kon ? breath, wind kon ? spirit, soul, ghost, unseen agent kon ? essence, meaning kon ? hidden reality kon ? definiton (of a word) kon ? gender kon ? gaseous kon ? breathing kon ? unseen, invisible kon ? abstract or intangible kon ? to be or to turn into air, to vaporize, to sublimate kon ? to breathe onto ku ? interacting with the Toki Pona Dictionary, a descriptivist English–Toki Pona dictionary compiled by Sonja Lang and published in 2021 ku ? to read, or otherwise interact with, the Toki Pona Dictionary ku ? interaction with the Toki Pona Dictionary ku ? the book Toki Pona Dictionary itself kule ? color, hue, paint kule ? spectrum kule ? any intrinsic or sensory attribute, such as flavor, smell, timber, pitch and texture kule ? to be or turn colourful, to colour, to paint kule ? colourful, pigmented, painted kule ? on a spectrum, diverse kule ? of or relating to the LGBT community kulupu ? group, collection, set kulupu ? community, nation, society, tribe kulupu ? company, organization kulupu ? system, set of alters kulupu ? grouped, in a group kulupu ? communal, of or relating to a community kulupu ? to be, to become or to make a group, to group kute ? ear kute ? sense of hearing kute ? to listen, to hear kute ? to pay attention by hearing, to obey (something heard) kute ? of or relating to hearing, auditory kute ? of or relating to the ear la ? in, to, for, so, therefore. -ly la ? follows a context phrase or clause la ? used to form conditionals, so, therefore la ? used to express tense-like or adverb-like information la ? moves a prepositional phrase to the start of a sentence, either preserving or replacing the preposition lanpan ? to take, to seize, to steal, to catch, to receive lape ? sleep, rest or a period thereof lape ? to sleep, to rest lape ? to cause to sleep or to rest lape ? to lay, to lie down lape ? sleeping, resting, asleep lape ? of or relating to sleep laso ? blue, green, blueish, greenish laso ? turquoise, cyan, lime laso ? the color blue or green laso ? to be or turn blue or green lawa ? a head lawa ? the mind lawa ? the state of control or leadership lawa ? a ruler or leader lawa ? to lead, control, rule, regulate, or plan lawa ? head, leading, in charge leko ? square, cube leko ? block, brick, corner leko ? stair, stairs len ? cloth, fabric, textiles len ? clothing len ? cover, a layer of privacy or secrecy len ? fabric len ? clothed len ? hidden, private len ? to weave len ? to clothe or be clothed len ? to hide, to secretize lete ? cold, cool lete ? uncooked, raw lete ? the cold, coldness lete ? to be cold, or to cool, chill, or freeze li ? precedes the predicate, unless the subject is only mi or only sina li ? marks a verb (especially in conjunction with e) li ? and (between multiple predicates) lili ? little, small, short, a bit lili ? few lili ? young lili ? unimportant lili ? smallness lili ? scarcity, insufficient lili ? to be, become, or make small lili ? to reduce, lessen, shorten, or shrink linja ? a long, thin, flexible, floppy thing, such as a cord, hair, line, rope, thread, or yarn linja ? a connection, especially to the internet linja ? long, thin, and flexible linja ? linear linja ? hairy, bristly linja ? to be linear or linearize lipu ? an object with a flat surface lipu ? something that can be written on, such as a card or paper lipu ? a document or record lipu ? a medium of information storage, such as a book, file, or website lipu ? to document loje ? the color red loje ? red, reddish loje ? to be or turn red lon ? located at, in, or on lon ? the present lon ? real, true, existent, actual lon ? presence, existence, truth lon ? to exist lon ? to be present, real, or true lon ? there is, it is lon ? to be awake lon ? to cause to exist lon ? to create, actualize, or bring about lon ? to prove lon ? yes, that's true luka ? an arm or hand luka ? five luke ? manual luka ? to press luka ? to physically touch or feel using the arm or hand lukin ? alias of oko lukin ? an eye lukin ? the sense of sight lukin ? to look, to see, to watch, to examine or read with the eyes lukin ? to pay attention by looking, watch out, or obey something seen lukin ? to try lukin ? visual lukin ? ocular lupa ? hole, pit, orifice lupa ? doorway, window, portal lupa ? opening, gap lupa ? door lupa ? rigid plane lupa ? holed, holey, apertural lupa ? to be or turn into a hole or pit lupa ? to dig, to perforate, to dent ma ? land, earth, ground, soil ma ? the outdoors ma ? a world or place, especially a terrestrial one ma ? a territory such as a country ma ? of or relating to land, terrestrial, national ma ? to be or turn into land, such as to reclaim land, compost, or terraform mama ? parent, ancestor (inclusive of mother and father) mama ? caretaker, sustainer mama ? originator, creator mama ? parental, of or relating to parents mama ? to be or turn into a parent or a creator mama ? to birth, to create mama ? to take care of, to raise, to rear mani ? money, currency mani ? cash, wealth, savings, capital mani ? a large domesticated animal, especially regarded as an asset mani ? livestock mani ? monetary mani ? to be or to become of monetary value mani ? to cash in, to liquidate mani ? to be or turn into a large domesticated animal meli ? woman, girl, lady meli ? wife, girlfriend meli ? femininity meli ? female, feminine, womanly meli ? to be, to become or to make feminine meso ? middle, midpoint meso ? space inside or between meso ? medium, mediocre meso ? neither one nor the other, neither fully is nor fully isn't meso ? to be or to turn medium or mediocre mi ? first-person personal pronoun mi ? I, me mi ? we, us mi ? my, mine mi ? our, ours mije ? man, boy, sir mije ? husband, boyfriend mije ? male, masculine, manly mije ? to be, to become or to make masculine misikeke ? medication, medicine misikeke ? pill, vaccine misikeke ? to cure misikeke ? medical, clinical moku ? food or drink moku ? something that can be consumed moku ? a meal moku ? to consume, to eat, drink, or use up moku ? to swallow or injest moku ? to cause to eat, to feed moku ? to be or turn into food or drink moku ? to be, become, or make edible moku ? edible moku ? of or relating to food, drink, or consumption moli ? dead or dying moli ? deadly, fatal, lethally dangerous moli ? to die moli ? to kill moli ? death monsi ? the back or area behind monsi ? the buttocks monsi ? back, rear monsi ? to be or send to the back monsuta ? scary, monstrous, disturbing monsuta ? dangerous monsuta ? scared monsuta ? scary creature or entity, monster, demon, predator, beast monsuta ? something scary, a source of fear, horror monsuta ? a danger or threat monsuta ? fear, dread monsuta ? to be scary or monstrous, to be a monster monsuta ? to turn something or someone scary or monstrous monsuta ? to turn something or someone into a monster or an object of fear monsuta ? to scare monsuta ? to fear mu ? onomatopoeia for any animal sound mu ? meow, woof, moo, etc mu ? a general onomatopoeia (humorous) mu ? an animal or other sound mu ? to meow, bark, moo, etc mun ? a celestial object, such as a moon, planet, or star mun ? a glowing light mun ? a light in the dark mun ? celestial mun ? lunar, planetary, or stellar mun ? related to the visibility or orbit of the Moon mun ? glowing mun ? to be or turn into a celestial object musi ? fun, entertaining, recreational musi ? funny, comical musi ? playful, frivolous, silly musi ? artistic, artful musi ? interesting musi ? fun, entertainment, game, play musi ? art, work of art musi ? to be or to become artful or fun musi ? to amuse, to entertain musi ? to play, to have fun (with) musi ? to laugh mute ? many, a lot, much, several, multiple mute ? very mute ? multitude mute ? quantity, amount mute ? to be or to turn into many mute ? to multiply mute ? at least three mute ? twenty n ? used for thinking or humming n ? used for humming, repeated to represent how long the humming is namako ? spice namako ? embellishment namako ? extra, additional namako ? spicy, piquant namako ? to be or make extra or embellished namako ? to spice nanpa ? precedes an ordinal number nanpa ? -th nanpa ? a number, rank, or measurement nanpa ? numerical or numbered nanpa ? to be a number, enumerate, rank, measure, or order nanpa ? marks the following phrase as a rank or edition nasa ? weird, unusual, strange nasa ? eccentric nasa ? unexpected, random nasa ? silly nasa ? foolish, crazy, stupid nasa ? intoxicated, drunk, high nasa ? psychoactive, causing intoxication nasa ? strangeness nasa ? silliness nasa ? randomness nasa ? intoxication nasa ? to be or turn strange nasa ? to be or turn intoxicated nasa ? to become or drive crazy nasin ? a way (literal or figurative) nasin ? a custom, doctrine, method, manner, system, or philosophy nasin ? a path, road, street, or other route used for traveling nasin ? the act of following a way or philosophy nasin ? customary, systematic, philosophical nasin ? navigational nasin ? to be or turn into a way, to systematize or trailblaze nasin ? to follow a way or philosophy nena ? bump, protuberance, protusion nena ? button nena ? nose nena ? hill, mound, mountain nena ? cone, pyramid nena ? spike, thorn nena ? bumpy, protuberant nena ? convex nena ? of or relating to the nose, nasal nena ? to be or turn into a bump or protuberance nena ? to interact with the nose, to nuzzle nena ? to smell, to sniff ni ? this, that ni ? to do this; to do that nima ? a name, a word nima ? nominal, lexical nima ? to be or turn into a name or word nima ? to name, or to coin a word for noka ? a leg or foot noka ? the lower part, the bottom noka ? the area at the base, but not underneath noka ? leg-like, or foot-like noka ? pedestrian, of or intended for walking noka ? to be or turn into a leg, foot, or lower part noka ? to physically touch, feel, or strike using the leg or foot noka ? to kick noka ? ten or negative five o ? oollows a name or other phrase as a vocative particle; hey; o o ? hey o ? forms commands, taking the place of li o ? used as an optative particle to express wishes oko ? eye, vision oko ? alias for lukin oko ? ocular oko ? to be, or turn into an eye olin ? to love, have compassion for, respect, or show affection to olin ? to be or cause to be loved olin ? love, compassion, respect, affection olin ? something beloved or respected olin ? beloved or loving olin ? in a relationship centralized around love, compassion, respect, or affection, such as a romantic relationship or marriage ona ? third-person personal pronoun ona ? he, she, it, they ona ? its, his, her, their open ? to begin; to start open ? to be, become, or make open open ? to turn on, to activate open ? a start, a beginning open ? the act of opening or activating open ? of or at the start, initial, larval pakala ? botched, broken, damaged, harmed, messed up pakala ? accident, mistake, blunder pakala ? destruction, damage pakala ? to be, become, or make broken or ruined pakala ? to break or fall apart pakala ? to botch, damage, harm, or mess up pakala ? a mild expletive expressing negative emotion pali ? to work pali ? to function, to operate pali ? to work on, to make, build create, or prepare pali ? to act, to do, to perform, or carry out pali ? the act of working pali ? a project, activity, or deed pali ? active, working, operating palisa ? a long, mostly hard or inflexible thing, such as a branch, rod, or stick palisa ? long and hard or inflexible palisa ? to be, become, or make long and hard or inflexible pan ? grains, cereal, such as barley, corn, maize, oat, rice, sorghum, wheat pan ? food made from grains or cereal, such as bread, flour, injera, pasta, porridge pan ? baked goods, such as cake, cookies, pastries pan ? starchy food, such as breadfruit, cassava, potatoes, yam pan ? carbohydrate, carbs pan ? of or relating to grains or cereal pan ? to be or turn into grains or cereal pana ? to give or provide pana ? to send pana ? to put or place pana ? to release, to emit pana ? to be or turn into something given or emitted pana ? the act of giving pana ? a gift or emission pana ? of or relating to giving pana ? given, provided, or emitted pi ? introduces a postmodifying multi-word phrase pi ? of pilin ? the heart (physical or emotional) pilin ? A feeling pilin ? an emotion pilin ? a direct experience or sensation, the sense of touch pilin ? a belief pilin ? of or relating to the senses or emotions pilin ? emotional pilin ? to be, become, or cause to be a feeling; to feel; to sense; to touch pilin ? to think, to believe pimeja ? black, blackish pimeja ? dark, unlit pimeja ? the color black pimeja ? darkness, shadow pimeja ? night pimeja ? to be dark or darken pini ? completed, ended, finished, done pini ? past, ago pini ? of or at the end, final pini ? end, finish pini ? extremity, tip pini ? the act of closing or deactivating pini ? to finish, to end pini ? to be, to become or to make closed pini ? to close pini ? to turn off, to deactivate pipi ? insect, bug, pest pipi ? of or relating to insects pipi ? of or pertaining to insects pipi ? to be or turn into an insect pipi ? to annoy poka ? a hip poka ? a lateral side poka ? the vicinity poka ? the area next to poka ? near, nearby, neighboring poka ? beside, at the side poka ? to be or put next to poki ? a container or vessel poki ? a bag, bowl, box, cup, cupboard, drawer, glass poki ? of or relating to a container poki ? to be or turn into a container poki ? to contain, to box pona ? great, yay pona ? coherent with the philosophy of Toki Pona pona ? good, positive, healthy, or helpful pona ? goodness, positivity, simplicity pona ? ok, cool pona ? to be, become, or make good pona ? to rock pona ? to improve or fix pona ? to simplify so as to make healthy or useful pu ? interaction with Toki Pona: The Language of Good pu ? official pu ? the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good itself sama ? the same or similar sama ? about equal sama ? of the same kind sama ? like, as sama ? similarity or equality, the same way sama ? a sibling or peer sama ? to be, become, or make the same sama ? to resemble, equate, equalize seli ? fire seli ? heat, warmth seli ? chemical reaction seli ? heat source seli ? to heat, warm up seli ? to cook seli ? hot, warm seli ? cooked selo ? outside, surface, outer layer selo ? skin, bark, peel selo ? shell selo ? boundary seme ? what, which seme ? whom, whose, who, who's, whomst seme ? why, how seme ? a question word sewi ? top, up, sky sewi ? overside, area above sewi ? peak, highest point sewi ? to raise, to rise sewi ? high, at the top, sewi ? up, above, superior, elevated sewi ? holy, divine, sacred, supernatural sewi ? God, god, religious sewi ? awe-inspiring, magical sijelo ? body sijelo ? torso sijelo ? physical state sike ? ball, round or circular thing sike ? circle, sphere sike ? wheel sike ? cycle sike ? round sike ? cyclical sike ? of one year sin ? new sin ? fresh sin ? another, extra, additional sin ? anew sin ? again sin ? to be new, renew, renovate, or freshen sin ? newness sin ? renewal sin ? novelty sina ? you sina ? yours sina ? second-person personal pronoun sinpin ? front sinpin ? chest, torso sinpin ? face sinpin ? wall sinpin ? foremost sitelen ? picture, image sitelen ? symbol, representation sitelen ? mark, writing sitelen ? to draw sitelen ? to write soko ? mushroom, fungus sona ? knowledge, wisdom sona ? intelligence sona ? to know, understand sona ? to be skilled in sona ? to have information on, be wise about sona ? to know how to soweli ? land animal, hairy animal, land mammal soweli ? meat from an animal soweli ? flightless bird soweli ? animal, creature suli ? size suli ? to enlarge, lengthen suli ? big, large, tall, long suli ? important suli ? adult suli ? heavy suno ? sun suno ? light, glow, radiance, shine suno ? brightness suno ? light source supa ? horizontal surface supa ? a thing to put or rest something on supa ? piece of furniture suwi ? candy, sweet food suwi ? to sweeten suwi ? sweet suwi ? sweet, fragrant suwi ? cute, adorable suwi ? innocent tan ? origin, cause tan ? from tan ? by, because of taso ? only, sole taso ? but, however tawa ? movement, transportation tawa ? to go to tawa ? to move, displace tawa ? to walk, travel tawa ? to leave tawa ? moving, mobile tawa ? to, towards tawa ? for tawa ? until tawa ? from the perspective of tawa ? precedes the indirect object telo ? water, liquid, fluid, juice, wet substance telo ? beverage telo ? sauce telo ? to water, wash tenpo ? time tenpo ? time, a period of time tenpo ? duration tenpo ? moment tenpo ? occasion, situation toki ? language, speech, communication toki ? speaking, verbal toki ? to say, speak, communicate, use language toki ? to think toki ? hello, hi tomo ? building tomo ? house, home tomo ? indoor space, room tomo ? indoor tomo ? domestic, household tomo ? to interact using a building tomo ? to enclose, to shelter tonsi ? non-binary, gender-nonconforming, genderqueer tonsi ? trans, non-cisgender tu ? two tu ? duo, pair tu ? to double tu ? to separate, bisect unpa ? sex unpa ? sexuality unpa ? to have sex unpa ? to have sex with, sleep with, fuck unpa ? to have sexual or marital relations with unpa ? erotic, sexual uta ? mouth, oral cavity uta ? lips uta ? jaw uta ? oral utala ? conflict, disharmony, violence utala ? fight, war, battle utala ? competition utala ? strike, blow utala ? argument utala ? to hit, strike, attack utala ? to battle, challenge, compete against utala ? to struggle against walo ? white, whitish walo ? light-colored, pale walo ? to be or to turn white or light walo ? to whiten, to lighten wan ? one wan ? unit, element, atom wan ? part, piece wan ? to unite wan ? unique wan ? united waso ? bird waso ? flying creature waso ? winged animal waso ? to be or to turn into a bird or another flying creature waso ? to fly waso ? of or relating to birds or other flying creatures waso ? flying wawa ? energy wawa ? strength, power wawa ? to strengthen, energize, empower wawa ? strong, powerful wawa ? fierce wawa ? energetic, intense wawa ? loud wawa ? sure, confident weka ? absence weka ? to throw away, get rid of weka ? to remove weka ? away, absent weka ? missing weka ? ignored wile ? want, desire wile ? require, need wile ? consent wile ? to want, to wish wile ? require, to need, have to, must wile ? to consent (to) wile ? to want to wile ? of or relating to wants or desires wile ? consentual 

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As many are waiting for results for next year's cohort, I decided I would share my full honest experience of TAPIF this year. I wish I had more testimonies to read throughout my application process.
This will be long but I will try to stay to the point. TLDR at the bottom. 3 sections total.
Section 1: Administrative details
To start, some background about me. This is my first year in the program, 2023-2024. I graduated college in 2022 with a major in Neuroscience and minor in French. I was very much science & medicine focused. It just so happened that on my graduation weekend I ran into a french prof and she told me I should apply for this program. After graduating, I worked as a CNA and a waitress for about 13 months before I left for TAPIF. I was living with my parents, so this put me in a really great spot to be able to save money.
In terms of the application, I only had experience teaching or with children through a group I was part of in college that helped refugees in our area learn english and prepare for a citizen exam. I really leaned into this since I had no formal background in education or working with kids. I did not take any sort of French exam, I got a recommendation from a french prof. I picked Bordeaux as my top academy, although I picked these quite randomly. I didn't want to get hung up on going one place then not get accepted there. I preferred a larger town and older students.
Fast forward, I get accepted. My acceptance came on April 20, 2023. I received my arret de nomination in May. I was accepted into the Académie de Bordeaux (check) in a high school and middle school (check) in a small town of a few thousand (not checked). My small town is only 30 minutes by train from Bordeaux and feels lively for such a small town so I actually ended up loving this aspect. I will say there are not many young adults here but I've found myself making many friends with people much older than me lol. My advice is do NOT be afraid of small towns. In my opinion, it's how you get the best authentic experience.
During the summer, I connected with my prof ref; introducing myself, asking about housing, dress code, and if there was anything she wanted me to bring with. She basically said; there is a free apartment in the high school available to you, simply dress correctly, and that I could bring what I wanted lol. I also found out I would have a roommate from Spain who would be doing spanish classes at the same school.
Over the summer, I honestly didn't do too much to prepare. I downloaded Duolingo. I bought outlet adapters. Blah, blah, blah. But as soon as I could, I made a visa appointment. Make sure to literally just print every document and bring it just in case. Triple check you have everything. I invested in a fire/water safe document folder that I use to store all my important documents. I actually bought my flight before I got my visa back even though you aren't supposed to. But it would have been too late and tickets would have skyrocketed so I bought them 5 days before contract date and hoped my visa would cover it. It worked.
Advice - make sure you know exactly what you are going to do when you touch down in France. Those first few hours with all your bags are frantic. Here's my advice: as soon as you land, connect to the airport's wifi and download a temporary esim (I used Airalo and it worked great). I used this esim for 3 days until I went to a Free Mobile store to get my permanent plan. Now you can use data. Get through customs and get your bags, then take 5-10 minutes to gather yourself in a corner and figure out your next moves. I skipped this step and ended up paying 40 euros for the wrong train ticket and ended up having to pay double. If you come from a place with no public transport in the US like me, the Paris metros can be a doozy. Consider paying for a pricey Uber this one time for your first arrival. I wish I did this.
After I flew to Paris and took a train down to Bordeaux and my town, my prof ref was nice enough to pick me up from the station, help me get settled in the apartment, and take me back to her house for dinner. The next day she took me to the grocery store. The next week she set up and went with me to my bank meeting. To be honest, this is about the extent of what she's done for me this whole time I've been here, but it was also the most important. I am so glad she helped me got settled. Ever since then I've been on my own lol. More about that later.
I had about 5 days to settle in before work started. I took this time to walk every street of my village to get a feel for the place. Found the grocery stores, boulangeries, laverie, running path, marie, etc. I also took the train into Bordeaux one day to go to the Free Mobile store to get my plan set up. HIGHLY RECOMMEND going in store to do this. Online you need to provide a french phone #, which you probably don't have yet. On one of my first nights in town, there was a big communal meal and music fest right next to my apartment. It was an end of summer evening, with colorful flags, cool music, and everyone dancing. It made me so excited for my experience to come.
Within the first 2 weeks I had the main 3 figured out; housing (free & provided), phone plan (Free Mobile in person), and bank (prof ref set up, I use Banque Populaire and very happy with them). I also signed up for the required civil insurance (assurance civile ? I think) through my bank. It's like 4.72 euros a month. Everyone has to get this. The only other thing I needed to do was the social security/health insurance paperwork. I had to do this myself, so I basically gathered all the listed paperwork, and went in person to the CPAM office in Bordeaux. I basically just handed her the dossier and said I need to apply for the sécu and carte vitale and she took it and that was it. After doing so I heard nothing for a couple months. I eventually received my Carte Vitale and sécu paperwork in January. (It may take longer, maybe shorter). We are registered with Paris CPAM as assistants so they probably sent it to Paris for me. I did hear you could just mail the dossier straight to the Paris office. The health insurance is a bit of a waiting game but in the mean time, you can get reimbursed if you have to have an appointment.
*Note - I am very lucky with my housing situation. There are many high schools that may offer accommodation at a lower price, but I had a spacious apartment for absolutely free. This is an extremely rare situation from what I understand.
*I will also note I chose not to get wifi. With my phone plan of 250gb per month for 20 euros, I watch Netflix every night and don't even come close to reaching the limit.
In the first week of the contract, I had 1 orientation day with other assistants in my area. The first half of the day they reviewed administrative steps for the things mentioned above. The second half was brainstorming different lesson plans. TBH, it was nothing I couldn't have learned from 20 minutes on Google, but it was nice to brainstorm and meet people. Other assistants had a much more comprehensive training, but mine was not the same. If anything, it was a day to meet other assistants, but it was a little awkward trying to get to know so many people so quickly and all at once. I think I met up after with 1 single person that I met that day. Be ready to get your extroverted on if you want to meet people that day, but also join the groupchats are group resources that are set up!!
Section 2: The job/schools/lesson planning
So I was placed in 2 schools. A high school for 75% of the week (9 hours) and a middle school for 25% of the week (3 hours). They were 2 very different experiences. I will talk about the middle school first.
I went the middle school every Tuesday afternoon (3 classes). This was consistent the whole year. At the middle school, I was in the classroom with the teachers. At the beginning, I was creating themed presentations that they asked of me and presenting them during class. That turned into just showing up and helping with the teacher's lesson near the end. I would read things out loud, answer questions, etc. I communicated with the other teachers in a groupchat and it was often pretty unorganized. A lot of times I showed up and the schedule was not filled in for whose class I was assisting with so I would just go around and ask if I could join. The schedule was not consistent, but I did manage to get to know/recognize a lot of students. I am very grateful I was in class with a teacher at the middle school because I don't think my level of french was high enough to manage the classroom on my own. Comparing to high schoolers, the younger students are also just way more chaotic in general. Overall, I just had to be really flexible. I tried to send a message every week asking them if they wanted me to prepare something but we didn't always end up using it. The teachers were all very nice though.
Now for the high school where I spent most of my time. In the high school, I was alone with the students in the classroom (never more than like 12). I spent the first week observing many english classes (it was supposed to be 2 weeks but I probably observed like 20 hours of classes the first week so I chose not to say anything lol). After that, I was left to my own devices. Quite literally. No curriculum, no guidance, no training, no nothing. And remember I had no educational background. That being said, I took advantage of this opportunity and ended up loving the set up. I could literally choose to do my classes any way I wanted. We are not meant to be teachers. No curriculum is necessary. We are simply assistants helping students engage in our language. That being said, I generally would lesson plan like this;
Each week I picked a theme. I saw 9 classes every week and they were all different groups (for the most part). This meant I could use the exact same lesson plan for all 9 classes, adjusting as needed for their level. Then I would search the web for ideas and activities. Some of my best themes that engaged the students best were; idioms, USA food/restaurant culture, writing workshop (different story writing activities), poetry reading and writing, pronunciation workshop, and USA politics/election. I usually would create a powerpoint then my worksheets/games if needed and voila. At first I was doing a lot of presenting. It felt like public speaking all day. I changed my tactics to do more group work and interaction activities and this helped a lot. There are SOOOO many ESL resources out there, it doesn't take long to find them. It usually took me no more than 2-3 hours per week to plan my lesson. My schedule did change a few times, but I always had Mondays off and then of course Wednesday afternoons (all schools in France do this on Wednesdays). Then it was just a few hours a day the other days.
At one point, I did see a group twice a week. They had a higher level so I just planned a tangent lesson where we would dive deeper on the topic. For example, read and analyse a popular American poem, read a short story and discuss, watch a video and do oral comprehension, etc. I thought it was fun to really be able to have discussions in this class even though I had to plan a different lesson.
Advice - always have some backup games when you need to improvise or your lesson runs short. Taboo, 20 questions, charades are games you don't have to prepare for. I also love playing Wordle from the New York Times with my students.
I will say, although I did not receive any help with my lessons, I also didn't ask for it. I think if I had asked it would have been well received. I did talk to my prof ref one time about a behavioral issue with a student and she immediately had a conversation with him. I think they framed having a class with me as a kind of privilege. I will say also, the relation between teachers and students in France was MUCH more formal than I was used to. In my class, I was much more lax with the students. This is also because I didn't give grades or homework, so I had to find a way to incentivize participation (competitive games help too). It took a while for me to establish my presence in the classroom but I really feel like my students respect me and listen to me.
As I mentioned, I do live in the lycée I work at. It is free and therefore I have no complaints, however I will say if I wanted to go for a run or open my windows during the day I had to be weary of the fact that students would see me. TBH I just didn't care. I would go out in my running clothes or open my windows as I wanted LOL. But not comfortable for everyone. I am also in a very small town, so even outside of school I would often run into students if I was out. This never really posed any issues, just can be awkward at times.
Section 3: Social, Travel, Culture - Life in France
In general, I think I settled in pretty quickly. Everything is new at first so there's so much to explore. Try new foods, walk around your town, take day trips on the train. You have a lot of free time working only 12 hours a week. My goal was to cook! I rarely eat out, and cook most of my meals at my place. I also take lots of long walks and go running. In the beginning, I was spending a lot of time travel planning as well. Even if you are in a small town, discover what it has to offer!
My biggest advice is to GO PLACES!!! Become a regular somewhere - a bar, a cafe, art studio, weekly market, doesn't matter. Talk to the locals!!!! I honestly could have been a lot better about trying to meet other assistants but that wasn't my focus. I wanted to meet locals! Go places, and do not be afraid to go places ALONE!!! I got locked out of my apartment one night, and while waiting for the headmaster to open the door, I went to the bar next door, started talking to people and got invited to a concert the next day. Just get out there! It's ok to stumble over your French! Not every experience will lead to something else but you can always learn something.
A note on nightlife - Bordeaux was the closest place to me that really had a nightlife scene. But if you aren't living in the big cities, the trains don't run all night, so if I wanted to go to a club with friends, we would have to get a hotel. This was fine at first splitting with other people, but it added up fast and I don't do that very often now.
And now for travel... As I described above, I was in a great financial situation before this program. I was working 50 hour weeks and living with my parents so I was able to save a lot. That being said, I probably spent $5,000 out of pocket during the whole program (not including my international flights). Now, I did not have to pay rent so remember that. I also traveled to some expensive places (Switzerland & Iceland). If I wanted/needed, I could have spent much less. Besides rent, phone, and civil insurance, you really only need to think about food, public transportation, and activities/travel. I spent about 40 euros a week on groceries, and did not need transportation since I live at my school, so I had lots left over to travel. The travel part is all what you want to do and how you want to do it. There are lots of discount sites to find good prices on transport & accommodation. I should mention - I did travel solo almost exclusively. I wanted to do it that way. I also took some weekend and day trips outside of the vacances. The travel part is really what you make of it.
That concludes my review! One more word of caution....
Be weary of the groupchats, and discords, and reddit posts. Although they are a great resource to ask questions and meet people, just be aware that people having bad experiences are going to be much more outspoken than people having good experiences. Take it all with a grain of salt, including my post! EVERYONE'S experience with TAPIF is different, so go with an open mind!
Wishing you all acceptance and good experiences. It is truly a neat opportunity!!!!! I hope this encourages other people to share a comprehensive review of their experience.
Bonne chance :)
TLDR; I had a great experience in a small town with provided housing. I had a lot of independence with my classes and not a lot of guidance. Don't be afraid to go places alone and explore. Meet locals! Try something new! Fulfill your travel dreams! Just be realistic with your expectations.

Wasn't sure about which flair this post belongs to, but this discussion is about reflexive verbs.
Since English doesn't have many examples for the above, I shall be stating examples from Eunoan's parent lang, German.
Take a look at these examples:-

1. Ich habe mich früher für Kunst interessiert
2. Trefft Ihr euch im Café?
3. Er freut sich über die Geschenke

The sentences given above are examples of reflexive verbs which Eunoan also possesses.
But, using two pronouns to refer to the same person(according to me) makes the sentence unnecessarily wordy which I'd like to avoid here in Eunoan. This is why, I have introduced a new set of pronouns to the Eunoic language which go by the name 'Reflexive Pronouns'
These pronouns, however, do not function just like any other language and instead function as 'Pronouns for pronouns' (i.e.) replacing two pronouns referring to the same thing/ person with one. For eg.I saw myself in the mirror→ \Iself* saw in the mirror.* 'Iself' stands for 'I + myself'
This principle can also work even when the pronoun repeated is beside a preposition. For eg. He looked at himself in the mirror. → \At heself* looked in the mirror.* 'At heself ' stands for 'He + at himself'
A few more trivial points:-

• In case of dropping the subject,(say in an imperative sentence) the pronoun will not form.
• Also, this pronoun formation can happen ONLY if the nominative pronoun(subject) and any other pronoun from the predicate refer to the same person.
• It will be treated as the subject of the sentence and the verb will be conjugated with respect to it.

So, do you think this is a good idea? Or does it hold any sentence formation blunders?
Comment down below if this system will work out or no. Please feel free to offer any suggestions you've got to improvise this system.
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Thank you!