The Use of Identity Politics to Undermine the Left Anna Coco
The US government and ruling elite have infiltrated and attempted to destroy the Left since its inception. In the 1960’s the CIA think tanks came up with numerous strategies to destroy the Left, such as promoting drug use and promiscuous sexuality as a form of not only “Brave New World” escapism, but diverting attention from working class issues. Remember Jerry Garcia repeating Timothy Leary’s famous quote “turn on, tune in, and drop out?” Even the decriminalization of marijuana today is really not to stop the Prison Industrial Complex, which is still arresting millions of young men, especially those of colour, but about pushing escapism as a replacement for protesting in a country where half the population lives near or below the poverty line. “Get high; forget your cares.” “Don’t fight back. Jesus was a pacifist.” (Forget that Jesus flogged the bankers in the temple during Passover.) The Communist Party USA and other Left parties were successful in pushing back this degeneration, discouraging drug and alcohol use as well as criticizing sexual objectification, particularly of women.
Another government strategy involved promoting Identity Politics, which along with political correctness in the late 1980’s actually achieved its goal of successfully undermining the Left as can be seen in its current state. This time period wasn’t coincidental, since this was the time the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union was collapsing. It was at this point that the Left started turning inward and becoming fragmented, with no centre to keep it together which is what the Soviet Union represented. Feeling betrayed, demoralized, and bewildered, the CIA easily infiltrated and injected the Left with its poisonous sting, causing many Left parties to reject dialectical materialism, and in some cases even Marxism itself! ID politics was the late 1960’s brain child of the CIA to divide and conquer the Left, pitting groups against each other. Political Correctness helped promote ID politics by using the same methods as McCarthyism. Since socialism is a logical, scientific economic system, proponents couldn’t be allowed to explain or discuss what is was or it would convert others; therefore McCarthyism relied on shutting down debates and free discussion by employing name calling, shouting down speakers, and further isolating and marginalizing Leftists, especially through blacklisting them.
From the 1930’s to the 1970’s the motto of the Communist Party and the Left was “Black and White Unite”. The question for example of the CP getting involved, whether in the Scottsboro Case or in unionizing the segregated South, took place with many open debates, where all questions were allowed to be raised, discussed, and answered, including those by less advanced white workers who didn’t understand or agree. It was the openness of these discussions and debates that allowed this sector to understand the nature of racism and to make the CP’s motto a success. In a nation that was then only 12% black, gaining white support during the Civil Rights era was crucial in changing the nation and its laws. The Black Panther Party understood this and gave talk in some of the poorest white communities such as in the Appalachians; even converting and forming important alliances with white working class organizations, such as the Young Patriots in Chicago.
The CIA unfortunately successfully changed “Black and White Unite” into Identity Politics in the 1970’s, where different special interest groups began vying for crumbs, promoting selfish individualism and rejecting collectivism, one of the basic foundations of Marxist Leninist ideology.
Following bourgeois feminism, white men were now the enemy and women felt pitted to fight men in order to demand more managerial jobs. Blacks began demanding the right to have more black police officers; as if women oppressing other women or black officers cracking the heads of black men was somehow progressive. What followers of ID politics failed to understand was that changing the driver didn’t change the system. My chances as a woman of dying from a preventable heart attack are the same whether the doctor at the hospital today is male or female, as are the chances a black man having his head smashed in by the cops whether the officer is white or black. Instead of collectivism, workers divided among race, sex, ethnicity, religion, etc., promoting selfish individualism. Of course there are supportive women and people of colour. But certain individuals are not the system. A perfect example was the Left dismantling the anti-war movement during the Obama administration because it would be seen as racist to protest a black president. What was forgotten were the millions killed abroad in US wars of Imperialism, especially Africans who didn’t care what race the current president was. As a result, today, Libyan men are being sold into slavery!
Whereas before ID politics, the enemy was clearly understood to be US imperialism, or the 1%, now the enemy had become the white, heterosexual, male workers. Marxists understand that white men are not our enemies, but our necessary allies in getting reforms under capitalism and in overthrowing the true enemy, the 1%. United we stand, divided we fall.
Unfortunately this vilification and exclusion of white males led to bitterness, creating the racism and sexism we see today. Many were driven into the arms of the right-wing in order to feel included. Enter transgender ideology, the new ID politics of today. Exploiting the Lesbian, gay, and bisexual movement, although the ideology itself is anti-gay and homophobic, it has been promoting itself as the Civil Rights movement of the 21st century. Let’s forget that Native people, African-Americans, and women still haven’t won many significant civil rights.
If white men were the enemy of yesteryear, women are now the new enemy, regardless of colour or race, allowing men their turn to experience inclusion in the Left by attacking and excluding women.
It’s not for nothing that penises are still called penises, but vaginas are front-holes, breast-feeding is chest-feeding, and woman can get their monthlies just like men (although I would seriously suggest that any man who does should go see a doctor ASAP and have their hemorrhoids put back in). Because transgender ideology, which is not the same as transgender individuals, just as all feminists are not bourgeois feminists, is a two-pronged attack not just against women, but the Left, too.
Its first prong of attack undermines women’s contribution to reproducing capital, both as the sex that bears tomorrow workers and cannon fodder and as workers. Discussions on birth control, maternity leave, food stamps, public services, as well as low wages and work inequality along with sexual harassment that affect working class women, become subordinate to transgender questions that affect less than 1/10 of 1% of the population, such as unisex bathrooms.
The second prong undermines the unity of the Left and the possibility of revolution. As Lenin said, “There can be no real mass movement without the women.” How can there be when women represent half the population and are the most exploited sex under crapitalism? In fact, how many people are aware that every major revolution in history was started by women? From the English, French, and the Russian Revolution, which by the way took place on March 8, 1917, International Women’s Day, it was women demanding bread that began it all. It is women who generally have to take care of and feed the family, especially the children. Prevent women from organizing or leading their own organizations, and the 1% are guaranteed there will be no reform or revolution.
What is Marxism? What does it represent? It doesn’t represent Hegelian idealism nor does it represent bourgeois mechanistic science. It represents a historical, dialectical materialism that analyzes the evolution of human society from one form to another, as Charles Darwin’s theories in the Origin of the Species analyzed the evolution of living beings.
Much of the transgender movement isn’t even working class; it mainly represents white, upper middle-class males who are racist, homophobic, and misogynist. It argues for gender stereotypes that tell homosexual men, for example, that they are really women or that racism is an imaginary concept. When transwomen says they are women, they are in fact negating not just biology and science, but eliminating the whole history of oppression that women experience. You heard the expression, you are what you eat. Imagine someone saying “I ate some soul food last night and I’m feeling black, although I’ve never seen a black person in my lilywhite town.”
Transgender ideology has set a dangerous precedent by referring to feelings rather than biology, which ultimately allows discrimination not just against women, but people of colour including native people.
Women aren’t oppressed because of a feeling, but because of their sex; for physically being the only sex that can literally reproduce the workers for capital. Being a woman isn’t a feeling. Just like being black isn’t a feeling. Being a Native American isn’t a feeling. I can’t wash off my sex any more than a person of colour can wash off their colour. Is capitalism a feeling, too? Can we unfeel exploitation on Monday morning?
Liberals who reject dialectical materialism reject nature and the evolutionary connection in nature.
Transgender ideology is effectively using language to erase women and subordinate them to the fetishes of men in nearly every English-speaking country. With the passing in England of the Gender Recognition Act, which Congress is trying to pass in the US as the Equality Act, women must defer to men as men now have the right to enter female facilities and colonize female sports at will against the wishes of women and the safety of girls. It took until 1920 for women in the US to have separate bathrooms, which Russian women won in the 1917 revolution. Lenin in fact championed female-only spaces and female leadership in female organizations. Really, how many women would like to turn around in the women’s showers and see a throbbing hard boner on a transgender woman staring at you? What about at a Rape Centre or women’s prison? For those who don’t know, it’s already happening: paedophiles and male rapists insisting they feel like women have been allowed into girls’ bathrooms and even placed in women’s prisons where they have raped women. Female sports and scholarships, better kiss that goodbye as men by birth have a physical advantage over women. Let’s go back to 1950’s America.
When the Left so wholehearted absorbed trans ideology, it threw scientific socialism under the bus as well as thoroughly self-destructing, making it the butt of jokes for the right-wing. From Black Lives Matter to FRSO Left, ISO, WWP, CWL, and PC USA to name just a few, all these organizations are now being redubbed Politically Correct USA.
It is rape to ever demand or try to coerce someone to have sex regardless of their age, sex, or gender. There is no place in any civilized society to allow rape or rape culture, and especially not the Left. In other cases, women were expelled for exposing male sexual predators, such as in ISO, DSA, WWP, and PC USA. I was told I should be ashamed of myself for shaming the PC USA by exposing a predator, when that party should be ashamed. In other cases, women were expelled because they didn’t agree with male comrades over the question of prostitution and violent porn. Imagine the outrage if a black man was stripped of his position and expelled, because he didn’t like to be called an N* and didn’t agree that slavery and lynching films weren’t empowering? In fact, why is the Left offended by Black Face, but not by Drag? Transgenderism is misogyny in drag.
Soros has spent over millions of dollars promoting transgenderism. Yet women on the Left who complained were ridiculed and silenced.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the CP subverted itself to neoliberalism when it decided to pimp itself to the Democratic Party. Even the ISO, FRSO right and many other so-called Left parties began embracing bourgeois liberalism, which has its roots in neo-liberalism or the free market economy, completing wedding themselves to parliamentary instead revolutionary goals.
Think of the level of misogyny; the CIA couldn’t destroy so many grousp like WW, which has existed for 60 years. How did it finally destroy these parties through transgenderism? Before we think this is an organic movement, which is separate from being transgender, it is actually funded by the CIA and its think tanks. That is the reason why it funded by so much money. Any legitimate organization would distance itself from these elements and I’m sure there are LGBTQ+ organizations that did.
When the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund hosted the 2018 Trans Equality Now Awards in Washington D.C. on May 17, 2018, its sponsors looked like something from a parody. The list included: the CIA, George Soros’ Open Society, Facebook (which is partially funded by the Atlantic Council, i.e. NATO), Google, Amazon, Capital One Bank, Shook, Hardy & Bacon (a law firm dedicated to defending Big Pharma), as well as a number of pharmaceutical companies and clinics including: Gilead Sciences, Meltzer Clinic, and Pharma. [See comments at the end of this article.] For women on the Left, this open display by the CIA and Soros was like the government and the bankers sticking their middle finger at them. It proved what they had been saying all along.
To this day, the Left still hasn’t apologized to women and is still promoting destructive ID politics, pushing women to the hypocritical right-wing. It makes perfect sense for liberals to be doing this, because as their name suggests neo-liberalism, they want to push women to the right. But why the Left? In fact, why was the Left so eager to adopt trans ideology and expel women.
Either promote the Left, that is the Left we’ve inherited and, like a corrupt union, we understand as Marxist-Leninists that we don’t destroy, but attempt to revitalize, or create female Left organizations like Women for Racial and Economic Equality to push Left more left.
Comment on sources
The source for the CIA and others having funded the 2018 Trans Equality Now Awards seems to have “disappeared” from the internet, and they seem to have decided that their sponsorship of the 2019 awards would have been too open. However, after some searching, we were able to find the Transgender Equality Annual Report 2017, at: https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/annual%20report%20 2017%20final.pdf (page 8; page 10 of pdf), which includes the same sponsors as in 2018.
Also, Soros’ Open Society Foundations has funded individual transgender activists who are leaders in various Left organizations. One is Imani Henry, a leading member of International Action Center and Workers World Party. The source of this is available at: https://www. opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/cfp_20050101.pdf, on p. 10-11. This criticism is more aimed at his party than at him himself, for allowing him to accept this funding, just as no progressive trade union organization would have its members accept money from the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), a notorious conduit for CIA funding.
As sources mysteriously disappear from the internet, we have put these sources on the web-site used by Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity (www.RedStarPublishers.org).
Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity

The Use of Identity Politics to Undermine the Left Anna Coco
The US government and ruling elite have infiltrated and attempted to destroy the Left since its inception. In the 1960’s the CIA think tanks came up with numerous strategies to destroy the Left, such as promoting drug use and promiscuous sexuality as a form of not only “Brave New World” escapism, but diverting attention from working class issues. Remember Jerry Garcia repeating Timothy Leary’s famous quote “turn on, tune in, and drop out?” Even the decriminalization of marijuana today is really not to stop the Prison Industrial Complex, which is still arresting millions of young men, especially those of colour, but about pushing escapism as a replacement for protesting in a country where half the population lives near or below the poverty line. “Get high; forget your cares.” “Don’t fight back. Jesus was a pacifist.” (Forget that Jesus flogged the bankers in the temple during Passover.) The Communist Party USA and other Left parties were successful in pushing back this degeneration, discouraging drug and alcohol use as well as criticizing sexual objectification, particularly of women.
Another government strategy involved promoting Identity Politics, which along with political correctness in the late 1980’s actually achieved its goal of successfully undermining the Left as can be seen in its current state. This time period wasn’t coincidental, since this was the time the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union was collapsing. It was at this point that the Left started turning inward and becoming fragmented, with no centre to keep it together which is what the Soviet Union represented. Feeling betrayed, demoralized, and bewildered, the CIA easily infiltrated and injected the Left with its poisonous sting, causing many Left parties to reject dialectical materialism, and in some cases even Marxism itself! ID politics was the late 1960’s brain child of the CIA to divide and conquer the Left, pitting groups against each other. Political Correctness helped promote ID politics by using the same methods as McCarthyism. Since socialism is a logical, scientific economic system, proponents couldn’t be allowed to explain or discuss what is was or it would convert others; therefore McCarthyism relied on shutting down debates and free discussion by employing name calling, shouting down speakers, and further isolating and marginalizing Leftists, especially through blacklisting them.
From the 1930’s to the 1970’s the motto of the Communist Party and the Left was “Black and White Unite”. The question for example of the CP getting involved, whether in the Scottsboro Case or in unionizing the segregated South, took place with many open debates, where all questions were allowed to be raised, discussed, and answered, including those by less advanced white workers who didn’t understand or agree. It was the openness of these discussions and debates that allowed this sector to understand the nature of racism and to make the CP’s motto a success. In a nation that was then only 12% black, gaining white support during the Civil Rights era was crucial in changing the nation and its laws. The Black Panther Party understood this and gave talk in some of the poorest white communities such as in the Appalachians; even converting and forming important alliances with white working class organizations, such as the Young Patriots in Chicago.
The CIA unfortunately successfully changed “Black and White Unite” into Identity Politics in the 1970’s, where different special interest groups began vying for crumbs, promoting selfish individualism and rejecting collectivism, one of the basic foundations of Marxist Leninist ideology.
Following bourgeois feminism, white men were now the enemy and women felt pitted to fight men in order to demand more managerial jobs. Blacks began demanding the right to have more black police officers; as if women oppressing other women or black officers cracking the heads of black men was somehow progressive. What followers of ID politics failed to understand was that changing the driver didn’t change the system. My chances as a woman of dying from a preventable heart attack are the same whether the doctor at the hospital today is male or female, as are the chances a black man having his head smashed in by the cops whether the officer is white or black. Instead of collectivism, workers divided among race, sex, ethnicity, religion, etc., promoting selfish individualism. Of course there are supportive women and people of colour. But certain individuals are not the system. A perfect example was the Left dismantling the anti-war movement during the Obama administration because it would be seen as racist to protest a black president. What was forgotten were the millions killed abroad in US wars of Imperialism, especially Africans who didn’t care what race the current president was. As a result, today, Libyan men are being sold into slavery!
Whereas before ID politics, the enemy was clearly understood to be US imperialism, or the 1%, now the enemy had become the white, heterosexual, male workers. Marxists understand that white men are not our enemies, but our necessary allies in getting reforms under capitalism and in overthrowing the true enemy, the 1%. United we stand, divided we fall.
Unfortunately this vilification and exclusion of white males led to bitterness, creating the racism and sexism we see today. Many were driven into the arms of the right-wing in order to feel included. Enter transgender ideology, the new ID politics of today. Exploiting the Lesbian, gay, and bisexual movement, although the ideology itself is anti-gay and homophobic, it has been promoting itself as the Civil Rights movement of the 21st century. Let’s forget that Native people, African-Americans, and women still haven’t won many significant civil rights.
If white men were the enemy of yesteryear, women are now the new enemy, regardless of colour or race, allowing men their turn to experience inclusion in the Left by attacking and excluding women.
It’s not for nothing that penises are still called penises, but vaginas are front-holes, breast-feeding is chest-feeding, and woman can get their monthlies just like men (although I would seriously suggest that any man who does should go see a doctor ASAP and have their hemorrhoids put back in). Because transgender ideology, which is not the same as transgender individuals, just as all feminists are not bourgeois feminists, is a two-pronged attack not just against women, but the Left, too.
Its first prong of attack undermines women’s contribution to reproducing capital, both as the sex that bears tomorrow workers and cannon fodder and as workers. Discussions on birth control, maternity leave, food stamps, public services, as well as low wages and work inequality along with sexual harassment that affect working class women, become subordinate to transgender questions that affect less than 1/10 of 1% of the population, such as unisex bathrooms.
The second prong undermines the unity of the Left and the possibility of revolution. As Lenin said, “There can be no real mass movement without the women.” How can there be when women represent half the population and are the most exploited sex under crapitalism? In fact, how many people are aware that every major revolution in history was started by women? From the English, French, and the Russian Revolution, which by the way took place on March 8, 1917, International Women’s Day, it was women demanding bread that began it all. It is women who generally have to take care of and feed the family, especially the children. Prevent women from organizing or leading their own organizations, and the 1% are guaranteed there will be no reform or revolution.
What is Marxism? What does it represent? It doesn’t represent Hegelian idealism nor does it represent bourgeois mechanistic science. It represents a historical, dialectical materialism that analyzes the evolution of human society from one form to another, as Charles Darwin’s theories in the Origin of the Species analyzed the evolution of living beings.
Much of the transgender movement isn’t even working class; it mainly represents white, upper middle-class males who are racist, homophobic, and misogynist. It argues for gender stereotypes that tell homosexual men, for example, that they are really women or that racism is an imaginary concept. When transwomen says they are women, they are in fact negating not just biology and science, but eliminating the whole history of oppression that women experience. You heard the expression, you are what you eat. Imagine someone saying “I ate some soul food last night and I’m feeling black, although I’ve never seen a black person in my lilywhite town.”
Transgender ideology has set a dangerous precedent by referring to feelings rather than biology, which ultimately allows discrimination not just against women, but people of colour including native people.
Women aren’t oppressed because of a feeling, but because of their sex; for physically being the only sex that can literally reproduce the workers for capital. Being a woman isn’t a feeling. Just like being black isn’t a feeling. Being a Native American isn’t a feeling. I can’t wash off my sex any more than a person of colour can wash off their colour. Is capitalism a feeling, too? Can we unfeel exploitation on Monday morning?
Liberals who reject dialectical materialism reject nature and the evolutionary connection in nature.
Transgender ideology is effectively using language to erase women and subordinate them to the fetishes of men in nearly every English-speaking country. With the passing in England of the Gender Recognition Act, which Congress is trying to pass in the US as the Equality Act, women must defer to men as men now have the right to enter female facilities and colonize female sports at will against the wishes of women and the safety of girls. It took until 1920 for women in the US to have separate bathrooms, which Russian women won in the 1917 revolution. Lenin in fact championed female-only spaces and female leadership in female organizations. Really, how many women would like to turn around in the women’s showers and see a throbbing hard boner on a transgender woman staring at you? What about at a Rape Centre or women’s prison? For those who don’t know, it’s already happening: paedophiles and male rapists insisting they feel like women have been allowed into girls’ bathrooms and even placed in women’s prisons where they have raped women. Female sports and scholarships, better kiss that goodbye as men by birth have a physical advantage over women. Let’s go back to 1950’s America.
When the Left so wholehearted absorbed trans ideology, it threw scientific socialism under the bus as well as thoroughly self-destructing, making it the butt of jokes for the right-wing. From Black Lives Matter to FRSO Left, ISO, WWP, CWL, and PC USA to name just a few, all these organizations are now being redubbed Politically Correct USA.
It is rape to ever demand or try to coerce someone to have sex regardless of their age, sex, or gender. There is no place in any civilized society to allow rape or rape culture, and especially not the Left. In other cases, women were expelled for exposing male sexual predators, such as in ISO, DSA, WWP, and PC USA. I was told I should be ashamed of myself for shaming the PC USA by exposing a predator, when that party should be ashamed. In other cases, women were expelled because they didn’t agree with male comrades over the question of prostitution and violent porn. Imagine the outrage if a black man was stripped of his position and expelled, because he didn’t like to be called an N* and didn’t agree that slavery and lynching films weren’t empowering? In fact, why is the Left offended by Black Face, but not by Drag? Transgenderism is misogyny in drag.
Soros has spent over millions of dollars promoting transgenderism. Yet women on the Left who complained were ridiculed and silenced.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the CP subverted itself to neoliberalism when it decided to pimp itself to the Democratic Party. Even the ISO, FRSO right and many other so-called Left parties began embracing bourgeois liberalism, which has its roots in neo-liberalism or the free market economy, completing wedding themselves to parliamentary instead revolutionary goals.
Think of the level of misogyny; the CIA couldn’t destroy so many grousp like WW, which has existed for 60 years. How did it finally destroy these parties through transgenderism? Before we think this is an organic movement, which is separate from being transgender, it is actually funded by the CIA and its think tanks. That is the reason why it funded by so much money. Any legitimate organization would distance itself from these elements and I’m sure there are LGBTQ+ organizations that did.
When the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund hosted the 2018 Trans Equality Now Awards in Washington D.C. on May 17, 2018, its sponsors looked like something from a parody. The list included: the CIA, George Soros’ Open Society, Facebook (which is partially funded by the Atlantic Council, i.e. NATO), Google, Amazon, Capital One Bank, Shook, Hardy & Bacon (a law firm dedicated to defending Big Pharma), as well as a number of pharmaceutical companies and clinics including: Gilead Sciences, Meltzer Clinic, and Pharma. [See comments at the end of this article.] For women on the Left, this open display by the CIA and Soros was like the government and the bankers sticking their middle finger at them. It proved what they had been saying all along.
To this day, the Left still hasn’t apologized to women and is still promoting destructive ID politics, pushing women to the hypocritical right-wing. It makes perfect sense for liberals to be doing this, because as their name suggests neo-liberalism, they want to push women to the right. But why the Left? In fact, why was the Left so eager to adopt trans ideology and expel women.
Either promote the Left, that is the Left we’ve inherited and, like a corrupt union, we understand as Marxist-Leninists that we don’t destroy, but attempt to revitalize, or create female Left organizations like Women for Racial and Economic Equality to push Left more left.
Comment on sources
The source for the CIA and others having funded the 2018 Trans Equality Now Awards seems to have “disappeared” from the internet, and they seem to have decided that their sponsorship of the 2019 awards would have been too open. However, after some searching, we were able to find the Transgender Equality Annual Report 2017, at: https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/annual%20report%20 2017%20final.pdf (page 8; page 10 of pdf), which includes the same sponsors as in 2018.
Also, Soros’ Open Society Foundations has funded individual transgender activists who are leaders in various Left organizations. One is Imani Henry, a leading member of International Action Center and Workers World Party. The source of this is available at: https://www. opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/cfp_20050101.pdf, on p. 10-11. This criticism is more aimed at his party than at him himself, for allowing him to accept this funding, just as no progressive trade union organization would have its members accept money from the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), a notorious conduit for CIA funding.
As sources mysteriously disappear from the internet, we have put these sources on the web-site used by Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity (www.RedStarPublishers.org).
Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity

Make no mistake. This is our team. We’re a hockey town, now. Eyes on us, swag on the general populace, plethora of hate from the circle jerk subs…
… and you know what? I love it. Is the officiating horrendous? Yes, yes it is. Is our defense paper thin? You betcha. Is Bob off the case? Right now, yes. Is our PP limp? Yep, like a toddler.
But you know what?
Fuck ‘em.
Boston
Toronto
Carolina
And even more so the Islanders, the Penguins; we clawed our way here. We don’t win the cup? Fuck ‘em. We played for it on home ice. With house money. Vegas had to buy that shit. Toronto paid for a round 2 exit. Carolina paid for a sweep. Boston paid for a 3-1 upset. We’re gambling with house money and it’s pissing every other team off.
Come hell or high water, I’ll be at game 3 screaming my head off, cheering every goal, every hit, every rush… I don’t care if we’re down 9-0 and the refs are fucking our wives.
We got Stanley Cup hockey in South Florida against all odds.

Epilogue

A brief, beautiful series of vignettes. We close the loop on some emotional beats, as well as receive promises/foreshadowings of further adventures.

Epigraph

The opening verses of Rumor Born, and possibly my favorite piece of poetry in the whole novel. It took me until this epigraph to realize that the title itself is referring to the city of Darujhistan and it's history. That said, given the fact that the work describes the events of the novel itself, and is written by the same guy who wrote Anomandris, then either Fisher was a Seer of incredible power or else has an immensely long lifespan. Possibly both, although the fact that Fisher's birth date is unknown implies the latter. Even at the end, answers only invite further questions.
The only other point of note is the reference to the "Gates of Nowhere" but I'm unsure what that might mean. The SCDAT?

The Epilogue Itself

The remaining Bridgeburners land back where they'd initially launched from at the beginning of Book 3, preparing to await their Moranth escort. Quick Ben and Whiskeyjack watch Moon's Spawn drift south, possibly to find another contest, this time against the Pannion Seer. Whiskeyjack's headaches have been lessening, possibly in response to his loosening heart, less guarded than the one he bore into Darujhistan. His cool reference to the loss of three members not being "that bad, considering" and Mallet's pained response shows the change has yet to take in full, but the Seargent has begun a slow road back to humanity. We leave the Bridgeburners with an ominous note, that Quick Ben has hatched another scheme, a big feint, one which might run over poorly with Whiskeyjack.
Captain Paran watches his men below on the beach, contemplating everything it cost him to get here. His... unique nature has granted new senses, and a growing awareness of Silverfox. Whether or not the romance between Paran and Tattersail was Oppon compelled or not, the two resolve to reunite in time. Mysteriously, they communicate over vast distances, although it seems to be an unreliable process. He has buried Lorn, now finally a soldier, holding in the position once held by the very man who warned him against this path, walking a path of ruin himself. Ganoes Paran, the gods have noticed you, and their gaze is unlikely to fall from someone who survived their use — what will you make of yourself?
Kalam, Fiddler, Apsalar, and Crokus sail west for Dhavran. The former claw is amused by the two youths and their naive innocence. Crokus asks after Unta, and they speak of leaving others behind, and moving forward. Kalam holds nothing against Apsalar, she's just a girl, after all. Crokus objects to this and discards the Coin, no longer in need of luck. Circle Breaker, even here barely noticed, decides to inform the Eel one last time that the Coin Berrer has freed himself, then looks forward, anticipating a new life. Also, the monkey's a demon, which probably means something that it decided to stick around.
And so, with beautiful prose and bittersweet optimism, so ends the first tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Gardens of the Moon

An excellent start all around! We've yet to see how fitting it may be for the rest of the series, but for now, I'm hooked! So much of this rode on Erikson's ability to pull off this massively ambitious departure from the commonplace, and he managed to pull it off far better than could be expected. While I recognize his inspirations in histories and anthropology, being able to port one form of literature to another, not only across genres but the fiction/non-fiction divide, is seriously impressive. While doing so without sacrificing much of the strengths of either format; even leveraging them to complement one another, is a staggering feat. I'll be breaking things down, although these categories are listed in no particular order, into Plot, Characters, Setting, Cosmology (encompassing the more fantastical elements from magic to races), and Prose/Format.

Plot

Favorite plots include the whole Jaghut Tyrant arc (for obvious reasons), Paran's Excellent adventure, and the whole Coll/Lady Simttal arc.
The deep lore cuts of all the Jaghut and T'lan Imass storylines are incredible, worldbuilding on a scope that allows for geological/evolutionary implications. The powers at play boggle the imagination and feel realized despite their incomprehensibility. Not necessarily "cosmic horror" although that plays a part, but a cosmic spectacle nonetheless. Ending, of course, with an apocalyptic battle feeling like the climax of a series of epics we barely get to glimpse. Looking forward to seeing so much more of this side of the Malazverse. I will say, the T'lan Imass gathering never really occurred, but I expect that's still coming.
Paran's whole plotline, beginning with quickly snuffed youthful aspirations, to political maneuverings, to being a pawn in the interplay between many gods and ascendants, to shaking free of the powers chaining him, if not necessarily free of what has happened to him, was great to watch unfold. It was the most straightforward "quest fantasy" of the book, touching on many cool places and meeting a wide variety of characters. Paran's brute "I'm already dead anyway so I may as well attack things head on" strategy was refreshing to watch, his relationships to Topper, Tattersail, and Toc were all great and helped to show his evolving character. Connecting with the Bridgeburners and helping them sort everything going on out was cathartic. And of course, the elephant in the room, the Dragnripur episode was fascinating and haunting and I need more.
Then there was the whole Oppon-infused plan regarding Lady Simtal and particularly its climax, was fantastic. I'm a sucker for plotlines that were technically successful yet have the characters involved come away regretting it happening in the first place. The solidarity between the Phoenix Inn regulars was great, as well as untangling their connections to one another. No there's no objective reason this one stood above the other Darujhistan plotlines, but I jive with it.
Other plots, such as all the Tiste Andii background intrigue, Crokus's whole ordeal, as well as Tattersail's plotline are great as well.
Most of the Tiste Andii stuff needs to be unpacked more fully down the road, as is we have only a brief glimpse into this massive, alien world on Moon's Spawn. Caladan Brood, Kallor, the unseen Prince K'azz, and Crone all seem to have their own intrigue going on, keeping someone reigned in. As for that someone, Anomander Rake's whole deal is a whole deal, I'm enthralled to see more of this obsolete great desperately try to get his people to care about anything again. The dragons are all tangled in this as well. Yea, I did just spend a lot of words just implying things without divulging much of what it meant, but so did Erikson and I'm hooked.
So Oppon's big plan seems to just keep nudging this one unwitting kid around via hormones and coincidence to drag the genuinely important players around. This is fascinating because it seems all Oppon wanted to do was mess with the Empire. For reasons that aren't quite clear yet, the gods seem terrified of this growing coalition of power on the part of the mortals and are doing what they can to slow this down. Even more interesting, they'd likely be able to curb-stomp the mortals pretty easily if they all weren't in their own cold war with one another. Oppon did seem to be multitasking a bit with messing with Shadow, but I'm less certain why they'd have beef outside of each operating in the "screw with stuff we shouldn't" domain.
Tattersall's (or now Silverfox's) arc is of course left wide open by the end of this, but is great. The Deck of Dragons is a fantastic narrative device, as we get assurance of the god's machinations in the background without having to pull the curtain back all the way. Also, one of the lingering questions I have is who the Ascendant that messed with the reading she did with Tayscheren was. I guess Shadowthrone? The whole soul-shifting arc and rebirth sequence are haunting and more than a but disturbing, but that speaks to the alternatives she could have undergone from her stunt in body-hopping. Her relationship with romance was a bit, odd, but there's a non-trivial element of divine meddling so it's cool ig.
The plotting is currently the strongest element of M:BotF thus far. That we had like 14 different plot threads splitting off and overlapping and drawing together over the course of the narrative is insane. That many of these plot threads managed to enliven and enlighten one another, narratively, thematically, and lore-wise, only makes the whole multiplicatively stronger than the sum of its parts. Everything felt pretty natural, with the threads that did overlap often doing so secondarily, as natural consequences rather than merging together into one mega-climax. I mean, we did get one mega-climax-sequence, but that was far more due to their proximity rather than each even being doomed to become defined by one another. Events that started separately for separate reasons stayed separate, but the shared pool of locations and characters helped to cause each of these to be deeply interconnected in the lives of those characters. Speaking of which...

Characters

My relationship with the characters of this novel is a bit interesting. They serve their plots wonderfully, and nearly every one of them has several standout moments in both word and deed. Yet, on the whole, they're, fine. I guess they're... exactly the sum of their parts? Don't get me wrong, these are extremely good parts they're made of. New character archetypes, old ones played extremely well, old ones given genuinely inventive twists. These are very good characters, but possibly the weakest pillar of the novel. The dialogue is weighty and meaningful, betraying a depth to the world and the people in it. Actions are (usually) thought out, exceptions to this rule are all true to a character or under extenuating circumstances. I want to see more of all of them. It's just, there isn't much of that "x factor" a lot of great character writers bring out.
I've already praised Paran, his attitude, and his motives. He's way over his head at the best of times and just has to bluff and namedrop long enough to survive to a point where he can effect genuine change. That effort changes him pretty drastically, and while he is somewhat better off for it, it is a sad thing to see the naive kid in him die off so soon.
Tattersail is interesting to me, I like her, but as a character she's on the weaker end of the cast. We do see her strong emotions and compassion explored a bit, but she takes a pretty hard left turn plot wise before that goes much of anywhere. We'll have to wait and see how Silverfox pans out.
Whiskeyjack fascinates me, we don't get too much of who he is, just all that's left of him of being ground into the dust. I can't wait to see Whiskeyjack the Old Guard thaw off more, as well as Whiskeyjack the man.
Quick Ben and Kalam probably stand as my current favorite Bridgeburners, their bromance being a highlight of the novel all while standing as fascinating characters on their own. Quick Ben has, all kinds of backstory running around, as well as secrets on top of that, but what we know of him so far is great. Kalam's just world-weary, yet he can't help but keep moving forward until he can bow out legitimately. The two of them are so much fun on top of being fascinating.
Dujek and Tayscheren, while not super present in the novel, are pretty great characters in their own right. Dujek, last of the Old Guard with any real power, just trying to do what he can for his men. And Tayscheren, not necessarily evil, but just a guy swallowed up in his own job.
Hairlock, while not making too much of a splash in the grand scheme of things, was an incredibly fun inclusion and a great initial antagonist. Just a power-mad goofy little guy who doubles as our first major look into this world's magic and cosmology.
Adjunct Lorn was one of the standout characters of the novel, a woman enslaved to her own self-justification. Torn between the scared girl trapped in the mines and the unfeeling super claw, unable to reconcile the two before the end. Her constant contradictions and tensions within her character were fascinating to watch.
And Toc, poor Toc man. A great guy who I'd loved to have seen more of, just being such an interesting character on top of being fun. I feel he's introduced some interesting concepts, from the "inner sight" superstition of Seven Cities to whomever his dad is, but the credits have rolled and my guy is still down for the count, so I'll be interested to see how these elements are brought back.
Crokus Younghand stands out in this novel as the one, lone dumbass. Stop being literally me Crokus, you're embarrassing us. His interactions with everyone are great, quickly vacillating between idealism and stubbornness, romanticism and a parody grimdark woe-is-me view of reality. Every interaction he has with a woman is golden, but not particularly a glowing performance on his end.
Magnanimous Kruppe the First is the indesputable highpoint of this esteemed tale, and I will not hear otherwise. He is of course, bestowed of many virtues, chief among so his delight in the many pleasures of this world, second among so his capacity to indulge in any virtue or pleasure at will. Cleverest of anyone we see here, able to run conversations by himself with faux humility (for what does Kruppe have a need to be humble about?) and keep the magnificent city of Darujhistan in his pocket. There is a power vacuum of sorts our dear Eel needs to fulfill, and there is plenty of the rotund mage to explore each new crevice.
Rallick Nom and Murillio are great as well, in many ways they act as foils of one another. Rallick does what he does because he sees this as his only path through life, holding onto the concept of his actions benefiting others to preserve his mortality. Murillio, on the other hand, has a moral code of sorts but will transgress it if he feels there is a way to benefit a friend sufficiently. In the end, they both wind up morally bankrupt.
Lady Simtal and Turban Orr were fun villains. Not particularly unique but pulled off extremely well.
High Alchemist Baruk seems to have a whole bunch of layers to him. We keep getting allusions to a whole bunch of relevant stories with this man, such as his ascendancy or close friendship to Rallick Nom, but we don't get to see much of it, which I feel is a shame.
Raest is an awsome force of nature villain, believably evil for the sake of it. Namely, his evil is specific which is what makes for great villains of this sort. Raest wanted control over the longterm development of his world, to fundamentally remake things after his own nature.
Anomander freaking Rake. Nuf said.

Setting

While this is our first real look into Wu(?) as a whole, I'll mostly focus on modern-day Genebakis.
A great setting, with a bit of ecological and cultural diversity, although mostly hyperfocused on the city of Darujhistan. Perhaps a bit more could have been done in the set-dressing department. Genebaris received no real description, despite apparently existing in a different biome than the more southern cities. Similarly, he evidently passes through a forest, but of what kind? Touches like these could help further drive in the scope of the narrative physically in a similar manner to the temporal scope. It also is a bit disappointing because when Erikson did go the extra mile to do so, such as Kruppe's dreams or the like, two up-close descriptions of Darujhistan (besides just being big, blue, and copper from far off) were great. Actually, the lack of Darujhistan descriptions was possibly the biggest missed opportunity.
But what we do get in the City of Blue Fire is great and evocative. From the infrastructure to the politics to the culture and religion, it all stands out even among other great fantasy cities.
The Rhivi, Moranth, and Bhargast can all stand to be expanded on, but I get the sense that they'll be more than able to provide on that front once it becomes time. I'm curious to see how southern Genebakis contrasts to the northern reaches, but we'll get to that when we get to that.
Erikson's experience as an anthropologist really shines through, with the breadth, depth, and specificity of the world-building and cultures. I anticipate this element of the BotF rising to the top for me personally once we have more time to watch it unfold.

Cosmology and Magic

So my takes on these have been... rather well received, it seems. I love what tiny bit of the magic and cosmos of the world I've seen so far and look forward to understanding more!
In a lot of ways, it seems magic in this world is itself undergoing an evolutionary process, with all the Elder Warrens to Warrens ascendants and gods, and mortals evidently now being potent enough to overpower the gods themselves. If we expand on this analogy, then a lot of the confusion might be due to poor terminology. E.g. define a fish. Now define a Warren. There seem to be multiple related things all lumped under the same blanket term, despite their functional difference. The magic super highways and demi-planes and isolated pockets within objects (Dragnupir and the Finnest) are all roughly related (fish) while being intrinsically different and likely further classifiable as such (trout, squid, and sharks if you will).
But aside from that residual speculation and just generally saying its cool, I don't got much to say here.

Prose and Format

The prose of GotM was pretty good! Not the best, but serviceable, engaging, and evocative with a handful of really standout passages. I cannot wait to see this take a ten-year leap in Deadhouse Gates!
The formating was interesting. Many chapters were wonderfully interwoven PoV's all complimenting each other. Some could have conceivably been split into multiple quite comfortably, other blended. Makes me wonder why Erikson collected things as he did. Chapter 9 was basically 4 self-contained sequences each a chapter long, lol. ... It's because the Odessy has 24 chapters, isn't it? The book breakdown was terrifically effective, while Books 4, 5, and 6 largely blended together PoV-wise, they each still had their specific goals and arcs.
I'm a major fan of Epigraphs, and these were all great! (Despite my constant timeline and poetry scruples) A lot of my more out-there theorizing tended to be a bit more playful with the epigraphs than I think Erikson ever got, but that's more my own biases talking. I will say, if I ever get around to writing anything, I'd love to go ham on epigraph shenanigans.
All in all, this profoundly unique PoV structure (not so much unique in form as in just how broad and ambitious it is) works to elevate the whole experience. That Erikson so radically adheres to 3rd limited can get somewhat constraining at times, especially when we're not privy to info our PoV has, but overall, it works.

Final Thoughts

So, with all my nit-picking, critiques, and half-praise, did I even like this novel? No, I LOVE it. It is in many ways as advertised, a messy first step into a unique and wildly ambitious new direction, and I'm wholly invested in watching the rest of this unfold!
And now for one last pass through the ancillary goodies:
Dramatis Personae
Is actually quite funny in retrospect. But first:
Sorry is mentioned as a killer in the guise of a young girl. Obvious when you're in the know but it doesn't give the answer right away.
Dancer is mentioned as the advisor (right-hand, if you will) right out of the gate, D'oh.
Toc the Elder disappeared during Laseen's purges, interesting.
Kruppe: a man of false modesty, TRUE
Coll being merely listed as a drunk, technically true.
Chert: "an unlucky bully" lol
Mammot is listed as a High Preist of D'riss, D'oh.
The Eel is listed independently of Kruppe, good cover.
K'Rul is listed as the Maker of Paths, D'oh.
And that's more or less it. (I mean, I only skimmed it before, so its not like a missed anything)

Glossary

Not too much to say here, but a few notes:
Poliel, Missteres of Pestilence, and Soliel, Missteres of Healing have rather similar names, which is interesting.
The Warrens here are all listed as what their actual domains are, which is a nice aid. There don't seem to be any more than the ones named somewhere within the text, which is fine, but a couple odd notes:
Meanas is listed as the Path of Shadow and Illusion, Tattersail mentioned the two domains are connected, whereas Quick Ben (once a High Preist of Shadow) had seemed to regard the two as separate. There's a story there.
Also, Thyr, Tattersaill's Warren, is the Warren of Light, given the apparently... interesting relationship between Light and Dark, particularly Lights evident "corruption" I'd love to see the implications of all this.
The K'chain Che'maille's Elder Warren is not listed, either because it doesn't exist (once again proving them the worst Elder Race, nerds got soloed by some snow, lol) or it was simply never mentioned. Given we have seen at least one magic relic from them, likely the latter.
Also, the Azath is nowhere mentioned, which is interesting in itself.
Well, that's that! See y'all in a week or so, once I've gotten a test out of the way, with the beginning of Deadhouse Gates!

Main hub thread with the full 131 rankings
THE MOUNTAINEERS HAVE JUST BEATEN THE MICHIGAN WOLVERINES!
Those words still echo in the mind of college football fans today, whether you like it or not. Since that game, App State has gone from little known FCS school to one of the premier Group of 5 programs in the country, going to 7 bowls and winning 4 conference titles in their first 9 years in the FBS. App State is so much more than their win over Michigan, they’re a 3x FCS national title winner with a 654-352-28 all time record.

Best Seasons and Highlights

1. 2019: 11. Appalachian State: 13-1 (33.774) 2. 2018: 16. Appalachian State: 11-2 (23.951) 3. 2015: 25. Appalachian State: 11-2 (19.956) 4. 2016: 23. Appalachian State: 10-3 (18.676) 5. 2021: 34. Appalachian State: 10-4 (11.872) 6. 2020: 27. Appalachian State: 9-3 (10.207) 7. 2017: 41. Appalachian State: 9-4 (5.885) 8. 2022: 72. Appalachian State: 6-6 (-11.144) 9. 2014: 73. Appalachian State: 7-5 (-12.051) Overall Score: 10445 (80th) 

• 86-30 record
• 4 conference titles
• 6-1 bowl record
• 0 consensus All-Americans
• 8 NFL players drafted

If you want the blueprint for a successful FCS → FBS transition, look no further than Appalachian State. App won right out the gate, winning 4 straight conference titles from 2016-19, winning their first 6 bowl games, and went 54-10 in their first 8 seasons in the Sun Belt. They’ve sent 2 head coaches to Power 5 programs in Scott Satterfield (Louisville) and Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri). While they’ve only finished in the AP Top 25 once, they’ve finished top 25 in my rankings 4 times, and I think they’ve generally been pretty underrated as a team year-to-year.

Top 5 Seasons

Worst Season: 2014 (7-5 overall, 6-2 Sun Belt)
Despite going 6-6 and 3-5 in the Sun Belt in 2022, the 2014 team was slightly worse according to my algorithm because of strength of schedule. The 2014 team played the 2nd easiest schedule in the NCAA, and when you look at some of the teams App State lost to/beat, it makes sense why they’re here. A 1-5 start included losses to 3-9 Southern Miss, rival Georgia Southern, and…FCS team Liberty. The Liberty loss is somewhat excusable, it was 48-55 in OT and App still had an FCS-level roster. A 6 game win streak to end the season could’ve gotten them out of this “worst” spot, but the wins were over 3-9 Troy, 1-11 Georgia State, 4-8 UL Monroe, 1-10 Idaho…with admittedly impressive wins over 7-6 Arkansas State and 9-4 UL Lafayette. The win over Lafayette actually caused them to miss out on a share of the Sun Belt title. App State finished 3rd themselves. RB Marcus Cox ran for 1400+ yards with 19 TD.
5. 2021 (10-4 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt)
App inherited former Clemson hero Chase Brice as a transfer QB. Brice helped lead a 10 point comeback against Syracuse in 2018 to keep #3 Clemson unbeaten. App State was expected to compete for the Sun Belt crown with Coastal Carolina and Louisiana, who went a combined 21-2 the previous season. After an opening win over East Carolina, App State travelled to Miami to play the Hurricanes who needed a late FG to escape with a 25-23 win. In a possible preview of the Sun Belt title game, 4-1 App State took on 4-1 UL Lafayette, but the Cajuns dominated from the opening whistle to easily take it 41-13. App would rebound with a huge 30-27 win over #14 Coastal Carolina, to take the lead in the East division. The Mountaineers won out, going 10-2, and by the time they entered the Sun Belt title game they were rolling, winning their last 5 games by an average score of 42-12. App State had a chance at their 5th title in 6 years as 2.5 point favorites in the rematch with #20 Louisiana, but again the Cajuns did enough for the 24-16 win. App would also lose the bowl game to a high-powered Bailey Zappe-led Western Kentucky offense.
The All-Sun Belt team was SSSTACKED with App State players, with 9 on offense and 7 on defense making 1st-3rd team. Even kicker Chandler Staton was 1st Team All-American, going 57/57 on XPs and 20/20 on FGs. Chase Brice earned 3rd Team All-Sun Belt, throwing for 3337 yards with 27 TD 11 INT. RBs Nate Noel and Camrun Peoples combined for 2054 rushing yards and 18 TD, both making 1st/2nd team. WRs Corey Sutton, Malik Williams, and Thomas Hennigan all had 800+ receiving yards, making 1st/2nd team. The LB core was one of the best in the country: D’Marco Jackson was the Sun Belt Defensive POTY with 119 tackles, 6 sacks, and 14 TFL. Nick Hampton was 2nd in the conference with 11 sacks. And Trey Cobb was 2nd team all-conference with 3 INTs, 4 PBUs, and 6 TFL. Both Jackson and Hampton were drafted into the NFL.
4. 2016 (10-3 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt)
In 2016 it was QB Taylor Lamb’s junior year and his 3rd year as a starter. App was in their 3rd year in the FBS and showed potential the previous 2 years going 7-5 and 11-2, but hadn’t made it to the top of the mountain quite yet. That was the expectation going into 2016, with the media picking them to win the Sun Belt. In an opening 13-20 loss in OT to #9 Tennessee, most people focused on the embarrassment for Butch Jones and Tennessee, ignoring the fact that this was a really good App State team, and not your usual FCS → FBS transition school. After going 2-2 in the non-conference slate, App went 7-1 in the Sun Belt, only losing to 10-3 Troy 24-28 while beating all other teams by 2+ touchdowns. In just their 3rd season in the FBS, App secured their first ever Sun Belt title, and beat 9-3 Toledo in the bowl for good measure. RB Jalin Moore won Sun Belt Offensive POTY, running for 1400+ yards with 10 TD. Backup Marcus Cox was arguably even better, running for 1000+ yards and 9 TD on 6.4 YPC in just 9 games. He probably would’ve won OPOTY had he not missed games due to injury. Lamb had his worst statistical year with just 15 TD passes to 8 INT, but did rush for 500+ yards with 9 TD. DBs Clifton Duck and Mondo Williams formed a buddy-cop show character name tag team in the secondary, both making 1st Team All-Sun Belt with 9 total INTs.
3. 2015 (11-2 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt)
People knew App State was a solid school after finishing 3rd in the Sun Belt the previous season, but how good? The media pegged them to finish 4th in 2015, so pretty good but not championship material. Taylor Lamb, Marcus Cox, and App State would quickly challenge that hypothesis. Not satisfied with an opening 49-0 win over Howard, App beat Old Dominion by the same score 2 weeks later. It wasn’t good enough, we needed more. 37-3 over Georgia State. 59-14 over UL Monroe. App ran like a well oiled machine with the Lamb-Cox backfield. All that winning set up their biggest game of their short FBS lives, at 7-1 (4-0 Sun Belt) taking on Arkansas State (5-3, 4-0), who’d won 3 of the last 4 conference titles. Experience won out this time, with the more polished Red Wolves taking it 40-27. Still with the possibility of sharing a title if Arkansas State lost another game, App won out to finish 10-2, but Arkansas State won the title with a perfect 8-0 record. In App State’s first ever bowl game, Zach “Auto” Matics hit a walk off 23 yard FG for the 31-29 win, starting a string of 6 straight bowl wins.
The Mountaineers had a top 25 offense and defense, averaging 36.7 PPG while giving up just 19.1. Lamb had his best year statistically, throwing for 2364 yards with 31 TD 9 INT, also running for 436 with 5 TD. Lamb would go on to finish his career from 2014-17 as the Sun Belt’s all-time TD leader with 113 (90 passing + 23 rushing). Marcus Cox had his 2nd of 3 1000+ yard rushing seasons, 3rd of 4 if you count his 2013 season in the FCS. He ran for a career high 1428 with 9 TD. DE Ronald Blair won Sun Belt Defensive POTY with 71 tackles, 7.5 sacks, 11.5 TFL, and 1 INT.
2. 2018 (11-2 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt)
After Lamb graduated, I don’t think App State fans thought they could get any better. After all, they’d won 2 straight Sun Belt titles, and while they were slight favorites to make it to the conference title game in 2018, this team exceeded all expectations over the next 2 seasons. They had #10 Penn State on the ropes in Happy Valley in week 1. New QB Zac Thomas was going drive-for-drive with Penn State veteran Trace McSorley, and App even had a 38-31 lead with 1 minute to go before losing 38-45 in OT. The game would be a good omen. After 5 straight wins, App was ranked for the first time in their history at #25. Unfortunately, Thomas went down with an injury against rival Georgia Southern, and the Eagles coasted to a 34-14 win. With just 4 conference games left to play, App State needed to win 2 more games than Georgia Southern to make the championship game, and it miraculously happened, with App going 4-0 and Southern losing to Troy and a weak UL Monroe team. App State had a favorable matchup with 7-5 Louisiana in the title game, winning 30-19 to 3-peat as Sun Belt champs. In typical App State fashion (and typical Middle Tennessee fashion), App dominated in the bowl 45-13, raining on coach/QB fatheson combo Rick/Brent Stockstill’s parade.
Zac Thomas turned out to be even better than Taylor Lamb, winning Sun Belt Offensive POTY with 2039 passing yards, 21 TD 6 INT, also notching 504 rushing yards and 10 TD. Scott Satterfield finally won his first Sun Belt Coach of the Year award after winning the Sun Belt title for the 3rd straight year. App State’s defense was one of the best in the country, ranking 4th in PPG allowed (15.5), 5th in passing YPG allowed (162.2), and 1st in pass TD allowed per game (0.6). The defense had over twice as many INTs as passing TDs allowed! DB Clifton Duck earned his 3rd straight 1st Team All-Sun Belt honors, and in total 7 offensive and 7 defensive players made 1st-3rd Team All-Sun Belt. All setting up for an even better 2019.
1. 2019 (13-1 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt)
Satterfield left for Louisville, and Eli Drinkwitz took over. There’s a reason he was hired by Missouri after just 1 year at App State. App State fans knew it was going to be a special season by week 3, when the Mountaineers beat Mack Brown and North Carolina, blocking a FG to hang on for the 34-31 victory. After narrowly missing out on upsetting Penn State the previous year, they got the job done this time over in-state rival UNC. From there, it was mostly smooth sailing. A 17-7 win over 4-1 Louisiana. UL Monroe and South Alabama by a combined 82-10. But still, for the 2nd straight year, even with a healthy Zac Thomas this time, App couldn’t beat Georgia Southern, losing 21-24 in a failed comeback attempt. Georgia Southern could have the rivalry trophy though—App had loftier goals for 2019. Not satisfied with the win over UNC, App State moved down the map to South Carolina, beating the Gamecocks 20-15 at Williams-Brice. After going 11-1 in the regular season, it was #21 App State in a rematch with 10-2 Louisiana. App took a 45-24 lead in the 4th, and held on for the 45-38 final, winning their 4th(!) straight Sun Belt title. A 31-17 win in the bowl over UAB capped off a 13-1 year, easily the best in school history. A #19 final ranking was also App’s first in school history.
Personally, I think they were underrated by the polls. They finished 11th for me, with wins over North Carolina, South Carolina, 11-3 Louisiana (twice), 9-5 UAB, and 6 wins by 20+ points. RB Darrynton Evans won Sun Belt Offensive POTY with 1678 yards and 23 TD from scrimmage. Evans can thank an offensive line which had 4 of 5 starters made 1st/2nd Team All-Sun Belt. LB Akeem Davis-Gaither won Sun Belt Defensive POTY, making an impact in all phases of the game with 101 tackles, 5 sacks, 9.5 TFL, 8 PBU, and 1 INT. 8 starters on offense and 7 on defense made 1st-3rd Team All-Sun Belt. 6 players have been drafted from this team into the NFL.
According to my algorithm, 2019 Appalachian State is the 22nd best Group of 5 team since 1983.

5th Quarter

Which game/play/player do you think of when you think of Appalachian State? Is their ranking of #80 fair despite only playing 9 seasons? Which was the best App State team on the list, if not 2019? Is 2016-19 App State the greatest Group of 5 dynasty of the 2010s? Who’s better between coach Satterfield and Drinkwitz? How would you rank the following QBs: Armanti Edwards, Taylor Lamb, Zac Thomas, Chase Brice? And now that we’re heading into the 70’s on this list…who’s next!?
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What exactly defines a country? It is a region of land that must have borders, law, authority, and a population, and it must at least claim to have sovereignty to be a country. London is a city in the UK. It has borders, law, authority, and a population, but London does not declare itself to be an independent country. Palestine is a country but many countries choose to not recognize it because they fell for Zionist propaganda or spread it themselves. Israel is not a country but many recognize it. Exactly what is and what isn't a country is always up for debate. Just look at Russia's friend, South Ossetia.
Now, with that being said, we shall learn about the Muslim country in North America with Sharia Law and nearly 2,000 citizens!
Yes, alhamdulillah, you heard that right! There are Muslims from this Ummah today who can freely practice Islam and openly follow the divine legislation of the Quran without fear of oppression. The Islamic Sultanate of Qarsherskiy is a self-declared country, meaning it declared independence itself, but it isn't recognized as an independent nation by any country on Earth. The Islamic Sultanate of Qarsherskiy has its roots in 1991 but it wasn't until 28th of March 2023 that Qarsherskiy declared independence. While not everyone in Qarsherskiy is Muslim and Qarsherskiy is secular and allows non-Muslims to live there and freely practice their beliefs, much like the Ottomans, Qarsherskiy's law is the Quran and the constitution of Qarsherskiy states this. The Islamic Sultanate of Qarsherskiy is 13 square kilometers in size and has full control over the land it claims which is surrounded by the US city of Newport News, Virginia and York County. Qarsherskiy also claims overseas territories where Qarsherskiyan citizens live in autonomous small areas of land with their own local leaders and laws. Anyone can apply to annex their land into Qarsherskiy's overseas territories and appoint a leader. The Islamic Sultanate of Qarsherskiy has 1,947 citizens, most of whom applied for citizenship online and were trustworthy enough to get it accepted. Qarsherskiy also controls Aidenistan Autonomous Province in West Virginia and was named after Aiden Stalnik, a Qarsherskiyan non-Muslim who helped the mujahedeen of Qarsherskiy learn the layout of the land in 2022 and was made an honorary citizen. Lake 'Aydn County in mainland Qarsherskiy near the American border was also named after him. Qarsherskiy as a nation makes about 3.4 million USD annually with Wax Myrtle leaves and berries making up a large chunk of the GDP. The goal of Qarsherskiy is to create a homeland and safe space for Muslims in North America as well as a few other persecuted minorities such as Eastern Orthodox Christians and Alawites, although many local Qarsherskiyan citizens dislike Alawites for worshipping Ali Ibn Abi Talib (Peace Be Upon Him). Qarsherskiy has a flag, coat of arms, currency, and government which includes an intelligence agency, an army of 25 people, a navy with 19 people and some kayaks and boats, an airforce with 45+ people and some small planes, and a police department that doubles as a fire department and investigation agency with more than 200 employees. Qarsherskiy also has an Emir, "Powerplant" Ali, as he is known, who acts as a vice president under the leadership of His Highness, Sultan 'Ali Aq-Qarsherskiyy At-Tariq AL-Akbar, whom is a conservative Sunni Muslim who peacefully prevented several possible Sunni-Shi'a Civil Wars and did the impossible job of governing and leading a North American Muslim nation to success.
Qarsherskiy has a few problems though and isn't all perfect. A few problems include:
-Qarsherskiy isn't recognized by any country and the Qarsherskiy Passport is useless because of this
-Qarsherskiy had to fight a group of neo-Nazis but the USA would've invaded and shut Qarsherskiy down so they could only use water balloons and nerf guns, which are harmless, and it took 2 months for Qarsherskiy to win
-Alawite separatist movements with plans to overthrow the sultan exist, and you've probably seen the alawite separatists on Tiktok working with Atheists and Christians to make videos doing shirk and worshipping Ali, Kanye West, Bashar Al Assad, and Isa (PBUH).
-Qarsherskiy's sultan is 17 and a Muslim convert, and it has been hard for him to study the deen as Shi'a and Sunni Muslims constantly argued and tried to get him to side up with one or the other, creating confusion in him, despite being a Sunni
-The Ahmadiyya/Qadiani community in Qarsherskiy is trying to destroy the country because they are labelled as kafirs by every based Qarsherskiyan.
-Qarsherskiy's internet prominence has shrunken by 48% and few people support or even know about Qarsherskiy
-Despite defeating the neo-Nazis, Qarsherskiy still deals with "lone-wolf" neo-Nazi attacks on their trade routes that connect Qarsherskiy to the USA and Canadian global market economies
-Qarsherskiy's Autonomous overseas province of IslamOhio Beach on the coast of Lake Erie between Vermilion and Lorain, Ohio has been under surveillance by the police due to suspected smuggling allegations as locals exported Opium poppies across Lake Erie to Canada. (It also has a problem with a struggle to fairly elect a new local leader but that's being worked on.)

Looking for anyone who has experience with exterminators and recs for a reputable service in the south Brooklyn area (Bensonhurst/Bath Beach) to hire. Issue? Roaches. The tiny ones. Not just general NYC waterbugs.
What should I expect from an exterminator? What's a "reasonable" price, from your experience? Should residents leave their unit for an extended period of time when extermination happens?
Background:
Been noticing issues with tiny roaches (aside from general waterbugs) at my family's home. The originating source may be from a tenant's unit, which is a group of roommates that moved in some months ago, on the second floor.
This issue with roaches has become a bigger problem as each week passes, causing distress to my family. I want to help them by finding and expensing an exterminator for the whole building. The only slight problem is, one unit has a small dog. I'm wondering if she would be keen on this idea.
I understand treatments may be needed for all units, not just one, to squash the infestation.
Thank you in advance!

South Carolina Resident: Gpa: 3.94 SGPA: 3.89 DAT: TS 21, AA 21, PAT 23
-120 shadowing general -230 shadowing oral surgeon -120 volunteering hours -Work full time in dental field now
School list I’ve applied too: Upitt Louisville MUSC VCU LECOM Alabama
Need advice on what to add. Going to apply to UNC and I am thinking one more private. Maybe TURO. Maybe IOWA too
Anyone have advice on any other schools/how many I should aim for?

/collegebaseball General Discussion Thread - SUPER REGIONALS WEEK: Part I (2023)

— Rules

— Guidelines

— Get Team Flair

— Inline Flair List

— Line Score Template

Super Regionals Week Games

Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon
6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th

2023 Postseason Top 25

Mean+Median 3-Poll Composite

Rank	Team	Conference	D1B	BWA	USAT	Prev.	Δ
1	Wake Forest Demon Deacons	ACC	1	1	1	1	—
2	Florida Gators	SEC	2	2	2	2	—
3	Vanderbilt Commodores	SEC	4	3	4	6	↑3
4	Arkansas Razorbacks	SEC	5	4	3	5	↑1
5	Clemson Tigers	ACC	3	6	5	8	↑3
6	LSU Tigers	SEC	7	5	6	4	↓2
7	Stanford Cardinal	Pac-12	6	7	6	3	↓4
8	Miami Hurricanes	ACC	8	8	10	10	↑2
9	Coastal Carolina Chanticleers	Sun Belt	9	9	8	7	↓2
10	Virginia Cavaliers	ACC	11	11	9	11	↑1
11	Campbell Fighting Camels	Big South	12	10	11	15	↑4
12	ECU Pirates	American	15	12	12	12	—
13	Connecticut Huskies	Big East	10	13	14	9	↓4
14	Oklahoma State Cowboys	Big 12	16	15	13	17	↑3
15	Dallas Baptist Patriots	C-USA	18	14	15	16	↑1
16	Southern Miss Golden Eagles	Sun Belt	13	17	19	21	↑5
17	Oregon State Beavers	Pac-12	14	21	17	13	↓4
18	Tennessee Volunteers	SEC	21	18	16	14	↓4
19	South Carolina Gamecocks	SEC	NR	16	18	19	—
20	Maryland Terrapins	Big Ten	19	19	25	25	↑5
21	Alabama Crimson Tide	SEC	22	20	23	NR	↑6
22	Indiana State Sycamores	MVC	23	23	20	NR	↑
23	Kentucky Wildcats	SEC	NR	22	21	23	—
24	West Virginia Mountaineers	Big 12	NR	25	22	18	↓6
25	Auburn Tigers	SEC	20	27	NR	NR	↑1
NR	Duke Blue Devils	ACC	NR	24	NR	24	↓2
NR	TCU Horned Frogs	Big 12	17	28	NR	NR	↑
NR	Oregon Ducks	Pac-12	24	26	NR	NR	↑
NR	Boston College Eagles	ACC	NR	29	24	20	↓9
NR	Texas A&M Aggies	SEC	25	30	NR	NR	↑

BA – Baseball America
D1B – D1Baseball
CBW – National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association
USAT – USA Today

2023 Division 1 League Champions

Conference	Regular Season	Tournament
ACC	Wake Forest	Clemson
America East	Maine	Maine
American	ECU	Tulane
A-10	St. Joseph's	George Mason
ASUN	Lipscomb	Lipscomb
Big 12	Oklahoma State, Texas, & West Virginia	TCU
Big East	Connecticut	Xavier
Big South	Campbell	Campbell
Big Ten	Maryland	Maryland
Big West	UC San Diego*	ɴᴏɴᴇ
CAA	UNCW	UNCW
C-USA	Dallas Baptist	Charlotte
Horizon	Wright State	Wright State
Ivy League	Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania
MAAC	Fairfield	Rider
MAC	Kent State	Ball State
Missouri Valley	Indiana State	Indiana State
Mountain West	San Diego State & San José State	San José State
NEC	Central Connecticut	Central Connecticut
Ohio Valley	Morehead State	Eastern Illinois
Pac-12	Stanford	Oregon
Patriot	Army	Army
SEC	Arkansas & Florida	Vanderbilt
SoCon	Samford	Samford
Southland	Nicholls	Nicholls
Summit	Oral Roberts	Oral Roberts
Sun Belt	Coastal Carolina	Southern Miss
SWAC	Alabama State	Florida A&M
WAC	Grand Canyon	Sam Houston
West Coast	Loyola Marymount	Santa Clara

*ineligible to receive automatic qualifier; Cal State Fullerton was rewarded the bid

PART EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY-ONE
[Previous Chapter] [The Beginning] [Patreon+2]
Friday
It was the middle of a bright, sunny day, and Phillipa was jogging through Central Park, listening to whatever music her playlist threw at her. She was enjoying the rush of moving without puffing … without feeling lethargy at all. She paused and put her fingers on her throat like she’d seen all those fit people in the park do, but couldn’t find anything that even remotely felt like a pulse.
Well, in her mind, that had to mean she was so comfortable; her pulse wasn’t killing itself, which was awesome. Especially considering she’d been running …
She frowned and turned back the way she came. How many blocks had she run? And when did she actually start running? She wasn’t a runner, like at all, and she enjoyed chocolate and caffeine and worked too much.
Right on cue, an annoying water ripple which she used for her general ringtone (because it was quiet and wouldn’t disturb a meeting much if she were sitting in with Tucker) sounded, and she squeezed her right earpiece stem to accept the call.
Only it kept chiming in her ear.
Her frown deepened as she dug through her clothes, looking for her phone to connect the call manually, promising herself to replace the headset on her way to work. Except why wasn’t she at work now? It was daylight. Bright daylight. Why was she running during the day? Was it the weekend?
She found her phone in the front pocket of her business jacket, where it was always located during business hours, but when she lifted it to her face, the main screen wouldn’t wake up. It remained blank, no matter what she did to bring it online.
Plus, the music was still playing. The music should have cut out the second a call came through. She shook the phone and pressed the buttons along the side, hoping to reset it over and over again, harder with each pass, yet nothing worked.
What in the world…
Phillipa came awake with all the finesse of someone having a heart attack, her fingers biting into the hardened plastic edges of … her TV remote. The TV was still madly scrolling through whatever buttons Phillipa had been mashing in an effort to get it to work as a phone, but more importantly, her real phone was still dinging away on her bedside table.
“Phillipa Webber,” she said as soon as she connected the call, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed. It didn’t matter that she’d been sent home with the supposed promise/threat of a weekend off. Calls at five-thirty in the morning meant something was horribly wrong, and she used the adrenaline to clear away the cobwebs.
“Phillipa, it’s Michelle Winthrop. Tucker’s family is in trouble.”
It took Phillipa’s brain half a second to tie the woman’s name into one of the three senior partners of Pike and Hubble LLC, and from there, it was all systems go. “What do you need from me?”
Michelle outlined the security they wanted for both Tucker and the laptop he had in Pensacola. When Phillipa mentioned Helen, Michelle’s snort of disgust made her smile. “She’s commandeered Donald. That should be enough for her.”
Phillipa went into the living room/kitchen combo and slid into the bench chair that doubled as a workspace for her. She flipped open her personal computer and powered it up, going through layers upon layers of security protocols before accessing the business mainframe. With each one, she hoped and prayed Colton hadn’t followed through on his threat of having her clearances temporarily revoked.
Yesterday had been a wash as Martin’s driver dropped her outside her condo building and waited alongside the car while she walked to the main doors. It had annoyed her immensely when she turned to see why he was still standing there, filming her with his phone.
“Forgive me, Miss Webber,” he said, not lowering his hand in the least. “Mister Laurier has insisted on proof of you walking into your apartment building before I am permitted to leave.”
Phillipa had ground her teeth and eventually let out a long-suffering breath of annoyance, reminding herself she was too old to flip off Martin Laurier, as much as her sleep-deprived, caffeine-infused brain insisted on it being the greatest idea in the whole world.
She’d been polite to any neighbours she’d come across on her way to the apartment, but it wasn’t until she’d run herself a bath and sank beneath the warm bubbles with Samantha (her Burmese cat) perched by her head that she felt the first vestiges of anxiousness slip away. Samantha's meows had been so deep and so constant throughout the whole bath had been a non-stop tirade, no doubt a lecture for leaving her alone for a few days.
Not that she’d been completely left alone. Before she’d flown to Florida, Phillipa had arranged for an elderly neighbour who was the resident cat lady to pop in and feed Samantha and change her litter, but that wasn’t what her girl had a problem with. When Mrs Beaton came, she reeked of her own horde of cats, and Samantha hated all their smells in her space.
Thankfully, she wasn’t a boy cat and didn’t take to scent-marking her territory every time there was a threat, but for the next few days, Phillipa had known she’d need to air out the condo as much as possible.
Which was why she’d been dreaming about jogging when she’d never jogged a step in her life. For her, there were two speeds: a brisk walk or a flat-out run, with the latter only acceptable when someone or something murderous was chasing her. But with the bedroom window open and the smells of the city wafting through on the early morning breeze in waves, her dreams had interpreted that as movement.
A minute or so later, she was in.
Security teams were going to take time to assemble. Very few places would enable her to scramble a team with the necessary clearance levels, but putting one together from here and sending it down would take thousands of dollars and four hours of travel time.
She stroked her jaw, ending with a silent drum of her fingers against her cheek. “Boots on the ground … boots on the ground … someone with the right clearance…” Her brain was whirring as the options wound down on such short notice.
One was a super longshot, but given he had already passed the security checks and his history with the company was exemplary, Phillipa decided to risk it. She went into the HR listing of all staff members and clicked on the list of inactive personnel. Skimming down the list, she clicked on his name and quickly typed the personal number into her phone.
“C’mon …c’mon…”
* * *
Thomas was awake with his hand plunged under his pillow for the M3 trench knife kept there. It was a habit he picked up after his time in the sandbox, although back then, it had been a gun rather than a knife. (Nine years of rooming with Donald had him switching it out when he’d pointed the weapon at Donald before he was properly awake, and the other man had warned him that if he did that again, he’d be force-fed every bullet in the magazine.)
His phone sounded nearby, but the ringtone meant it wasn’t anyone he knew. If it’s a fuckin’ telemarketer, I’ll hunt them down and… he thought to himself, even as he crossed the room dressed in only his briefs and picked up the phone. It wasn’t like he had company. “Yeah?” The word was barely a question, more of a threat. It was intentional.
“Mister Cole?”
The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it. Walking over to the window, he pulled back the curtain to let in the early morning rays through the palm leaves of the trees that separated him from the beach. “I’m here.”
“Mister Cole, might I ask where you are at the moment?”
“Darlin’, until I know who you are, I’m not going to tell you anything except you’re messing with the wrong man.”
“It’s Phillipa Webber, Mister Cole. Tucker Portsmith’s EA.”
Thomas sucked in a sharp breath. He’d assumed walking away from the job and leaving the state soon after would be a big enough hint that there wasn’t enough money on the planet to have him going toe to toe with whatever it was protecting the Nascerdios family. Even now, his eyes dropped fearfully to the three-dimensional, circular brand on his chest of a snake that slithered around his flesh, hissing menacingly at him.
“Where are you, Mister Cole?”
“Nowhere near New York,” he answered evasively.
“Mister Cole, how close are you to Florida at this time?”
“I’m in the Bahamas. Why?” He had amassed a small fortune working around the clock for the Portsmiths with no vacation time for almost a decade, which was why he’d decided to grant himself an extravagant tropical holiday. Though every time he looked down in his swimmers and saw the living snake brand, he wondered if he shouldn’t have gone the other way and headed for the slopes.
“Mister Cole, would you be interested in temporarily coming back to work for us in Florida?”
Thomas couldn’t shake his head fast enough. “No.”
“Mister Cole, I wouldn’t be calling if it weren’t critical. You have the clearance to protect Portsmith Electronics’ interests, and if you’re in the Bahamas, you are our closest asset to our CEO.”
I’m not your asset anymore! “Where’s Donald?”
“He’ll be returning with Mrs Portsmith shortly. However, both the laptop and Mister Portsmith are in Florida, and the one bodyguard they took with them is spending more time with Mrs Portsmith than Mister Portsmith. I need a second set of eyes, and despite your sudden departure from the company, your loyalty to us prior to that was impeccable.”
“Where is Geraldine and … S-Sam?” God, he hated the slight tremor in his voice as he said that name, but damned if he could stop it. Going after Sam had put him into a torturous living nightmare that not even two tours in the sandbox had gone close to doing. At least once a night, he had woken up either trembling or screaming due to that inhuman voice and the way they’d imprinted the snake brand on his consciousness.
He knew it wasn’t really there because he’d asked several one-night stands what they saw on his chest, and they only described his regular tattoos and scars. He looked at his chest’s reflection in the door and shuddered when the snake turned to look at him in the reflection and opened its mouth wide to hiss at him.
“They’re in New York completing exams. Why?”
Thomas shuddered a second time if only to get it out of his system. “It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry, I don’t think I can help you…”
“Thomas, we’ll triple your hourly rate and cover the cost of rearranging your vacation once this is sorted. It should only be a day or two…”
Thomas reached over his head and hooked his fingers around the architrave of the sliding glass door, hanging his near-full weight off his fingertips to stretch out his arm and core.
“Thomas, please. You’re the only one with the clearance who can be on-site in a couple of hours. Even if I get things moving here, it’ll be at least five hours before I can have boots on the ground in Pensacola.”
Thomas released the door and dragged his fingers through his hair. He and Donald had already been paid triple the going rate for bodyguards, and to triple that again… “Miss Webber…”
“Thomas, name your price. At the moment, you have us over a barrel.”
“Full intel.”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s my price, ma’am. If you want me in on this, I need to know what you know about the people you’re going up against. No more going in blind.”
“Thomas, I’m not sure…”
“You asked for my price! That’s it! I’m not about to walk into a situation blind again if can help it.” On an exhale, he added, “Never again.”
“Alright. Alright … I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about, Mister Cole, but if it’s in my power to give you everything you think you need to complete this task, I’ll see to it personally.” Her voice dropped away, but not before Thomas heard her mutter, “It’s not like I’m doing anything else this weekend.”
“I can walk out of my bungalow in three minutes or seven if you need me showered and shaved.”
“Take the seven minutes, Mister Cole.”
“Yes, ma’am. Where do you need me to be after that?”
“I’ll text you the details.” She paused for a moment, then added, “Consider this your first piece of personal information you wouldn’t normally know. Tucker Portsmith and I went to college together, and I consider him my best friend. It’s why I want you down there, looking out for him.”
With that, Phillipa hung up on him, but Thomas was already moving.
* * *
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!

The East Coast of the United States is a treasure trove of breathtaking destinations, offering a myriad of experiences for travelers of all kinds. From stunning natural wonders to vibrant cities, the East Coast boasts an impressive array of vacation spots that are waiting to be discovered. In this article, we will highlight some of the top East Coast vacation spots, but for a comprehensive guide, be sure to check out the full blog post at Travelling Wings: www.travellingwings.com/40-best-east-coast-vacation-spots.

1. Mystic, Connecticut: Nestled on the shores of Long Island Sound, Mystic exudes a charming coastal vibe. With its historic seaport, captivating maritime history, and renowned Mystic Aquarium, this quaint town is one of the must-visit East Coast vacation spots.
2. Bar Harbor, Maine: Located near Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor is a picturesque coastal town renowned for its stunning landscapes and outdoor adventures. From hiking along scenic trails to exploring the charming streets filled with boutiques and eateries, Bar Harbor stands out among the best east coast vacation spots.
3. Charleston, South Carolina: With its cobblestone streets, antebellum mansions, and vibrant culinary scene, Charleston is a haven for history enthusiasts and food lovers alike. Immerse yourself in the city's rich heritage as you stroll through its beautiful gardens and soak up the Southern charm that defines the best east coast vacation spots.
4. Cape Cod, Massachusetts: Stretching out into the Atlantic Ocean, Cape Cod is a beloved summer destination known for its sandy beaches, picturesque lighthouses, and charming seaside villages. Explore the Cape's coastal beauty, indulge in fresh seafood, and create unforgettable memories at one of the top east coast vacation spots.
5. Miami, Florida: A vibrant city bursting with energy, Miami offers a unique blend of stunning beaches, lively nightlife, and diverse cultural experiences. Immerse yourself in the vibrant art scene, savor delicious cuisine, and soak up the sun along the iconic South Beach, making it one of the top east coast vacation spots.

Conclusion: The East Coast of the United States is home to a multitude of incredible vacation spots, each offering its own unique charm and allure. From historic towns to breathtaking coastal landscapes, the possibilities for exploration are endless. For a comprehensive guide to the 40 best East Coast vacation spots, be sure to visit the full blog post at Travelling Wings: www.travellingwings.com/40-best-east-coast-vacation-spots.. Get ready to embark on an unforgettable journey and discover the wonders of the East Coast's top vacation spots!

These are not in any particular order - some may have come a few weeks ago, some today.
But I do have good news: I did NOT work on cards at all this weekend, because I spent Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday all doing amazing fun things with my wife as we kicked off our celebration of Pride month. For those who don't know, we currently have two houses, in two different states, one where she mostly lives (in the U.S. Pacific Northwest) and one where I mostly live (in the U.S. Southwest, known as the Cactus Cathouse). We are gearing up to sell our northern outpost house and live together in the Cactus Cathouse, and this was sort of our "last hurrah" weekend before showings and whatnot really get started.
But now, I'm trying to get cardthings caught up so that I'm not trying to deal with them during the eventual relocation, starting with these thanks and hopefully progressing on to a request and an offer tomorrow as time permits.
Also, someone in this (long) list sent me a lovely, large rainbow snail vinyl sticker, but I couldn't tell whose mail it came from. (Maybe u/amyt13?) Anyway, whoever you are, I appreciate you immensely and I'm sorry for not organizing myself better.
Thanks to:
(First of all, thanks to the flair team, because yikes this is the worst and I'm very sorry!)
u/amabisca - This handmade purple card (my favorite color!) is amazing and was such an uplifting surprise. Thank you so, so much!
u/amyt13 (x2) - Thank you for the beautiful handmade collage card, the Oscar Wilde card, and all the extras! I hope you are able to find a good place to call home too - the one you were describing sounds like my kind of town, and I hope it works out. I'll cross my fingers for you!
u/AppleCritter723 - This cute botanical card/letter I an opening from you is dated in April. APRIL, friend. I am sorry. It is full of good news and cute stickers and I swear I will write actual mail and not just send weird envelopes of things to you and your "bigger little" soon. I hope your Memorial Day weekend travels weren't too bad, and that Gandalf the adventurer is letting you occasionally stay inside. You created a meow-monster!
u/awachob - Goose!! I can't believe I got to be the goose! Thank you so much for a fun offer. (And for the neat stickers!)
u/blue-wanderer-quartz - I am very late saying thanks for the Five of Pentacles cat tarot sticker reading, but it was incredibly appropriate to read about pooling resources as my wife and I re-combine households in part due to love but in large part due to, well, wanting to actually have disposable income! I think it's interesting that we both chose pentacles for each other! (And the cat postcard your reading is on is very cute, I don't want to forget that!)
u/bluedecemberart (x2) - I love the vintage VA hospital postcard from Maine... and we already chatted about the "not noticing the chores" thing but rereading the card as I went to post this made me sure again that we are somehow the same person. WEIRD, but COOL. And your New York skyline postcard is lovely, and now I want to watch A Crown of Candy!
u/championvilla - I adore this MarioKart card! My wife and I used to play a lot (right now, we have the game systems packed for house-showing). I hope that your husband is continuing to feel better (and that the cat finally decided to get off of him, lol!)
u/chiquita61 - The sloth mermaid dolphin thank-you card with penguin stickers is absolutely wonderful... and I am so happy you liked my "reject" sticker card in all its glory!
u/comingtogetyoubabs (x6) - This crystal ball card with Petit's ABSOLUTE WISDOM is just amazing, friend. (Also, did I get a little teary at "writer of hugs in card form" MAYBE). And the amazing goodies you included - the cat-yang patch, your beautiful handmade notepaper... there is no way I deserve the awesomeness that is you "buzzing" into my life. And then the second cat card and all the goodies, including the adorable bookmark...! And THEN I realized you had hand-drawn me three tarot cards that you wrote about, AND then I found your origami letter... I am in awe, friend. You are wonderful!
u/cswl (x10) - This is what I get for not keeping up with my thanks, I feel silly with how behind I am for you, my dear friend! (Both in thanking AND in writing back.) Thank you for the cute plant notecard (I do not do Informed Delivery because it will just make me sad, I think); the red fox postcard (did you go to Fogo, which is one of my favorite places ever??); the "sources of acid" postcard (I always feel better when I have time for myself too, and also always delay it too long); the absolutely delicious LouPaper charcuterie board postcard (I have both too many cards and somehow never the ones I really feel like I wish I had to send people); the postcard from The Lion King (yay garage sale days!); the Strange Planet vibrating cat postcard (so outnumbered, I have given up, they are in charge now); the two different New Yorker cartoon cards (you are 100% right - hard times are harder on the one holding down the fort in SO many ways, been there/done that, and also guilt trips suck and I'm sorry the person tried to send you on one); the cute bird saying hi card (the one-house thing was her idea first, and it will definitely be for the best, though I need to make sure I keep focusing on me too!); and especially thanks for "Content Lives Everywhere" collage you made - that is just wonderful. You are so great. I am sorry I'm such a bad postal pal but I'm trying to do better!
u/dazeyferry (x2) - My dear friend, this penguin with flowers card is AMAZING and I am so, so grateful that you thought of me when you saw it. And the little floral thank-you card addition was perfect as well. I love you and I am so glad we are friends! As far as bingeworthy shows - have you seen Ted Lasso? Schmigadoon? (Both on AppleTV.) Those are amazing. We also started watching Hello, Tomorrow, which is a bit sad sometimes but really good! I'll try to think of some more, too.
u/draconic_healing - I love this little tiny Polaroid-style postcard - it's adorable! Please pet the kitty for me - I couldn't tell if you wrote "Bear" or "Bean" but both are great names!
u/dwrfstr - This gold penguin card is amazing and adorable and I cannot believe your luck to find it thrifted! I picked up a set of hundreds of vintage postcards from an art reuse store that's near where we met up, and I ended up with, like, 16 of the same weird chapel at a church camp in South Dakota, so you definitely win...
u/fancayschmanzayyy - Your cat thank-you card was wonderful (as were the cool stickers!) And most of all, I very much appreciate you telling me about your act of kindness and I especially appreciate your caregiving nature. I cared for my mom for many years before she passed away and stories like the one you told will always be especially important to me. You make a difference and I am so grateful you exist!
u/Fancykiddens (x2) - I feel terribly, terribly guilty for how late I am thanking you for this amazing CARD-CEPTION package!! First, from the pengin section: the pengin family you drew me, how awesome are they?! You are so talented! I almost never keep envelopes but this one got immediately saved with my "penguin stash." Then there was your beautiful handmade Frida Kahlo card - exactly my vibe, I love it! The penguin goodie bag with the penguins and their fish snackles inside was adorable too. And then, moving to the "monsteroo" or cute monster section, I adored your Monsters Inc. letter and goodies as well! I especially liked hearing that, at the time you wrote it, you were feeling particularly well and accomplished, and I adored hearing how much carding has helped your outlook. SAME, FRIEND. So much so!!
u/feellikebeingajerk (x2) - Holly Hobbie card (the first, maybe?) has arrived! And yes, it brought back awesome memories. I didn't get a lot of "trendy" things growing up, as my parents and I didn't have a lot of money, but there was a discount department store near us, sort of an early version of a T.J. Maxx or Ross that was called Hills, and it would sometimes get slight misprints or seconds of things like bedding, which is, I am -positive-, how I came to be able to have Holly Hobbie. And I don't remember anything "wrong" with it, so, way to go, Mom of PinkPengin, for that find! LOL. Also, thanks for the cool Papyrus thank-you card from your random offer, and for the stickers!
u/fieldofcabins - This adorable bee thank-you postcard is so great (and the penguin as the stamp image, ahhh!) I am glad your dad is healing and please let him know I'm still thinking of him. (And of course I'm always thinking of you, too!)
u/GizmoDOS - Thanks for the solar system postcard, friend! I loved hearing from you. Life really has been hectic lately. I hope yours is moving in the direction of settling down. Mine is going to be rough briefly but then hopefully a lot smoother!
u/hermitcreature - I love this Studio Ghibli-themed card and all the great stickers and dragon facts from your book (and the amazing Zimbabwean owl stamp)! I hope you will like your card from me in exchange when it arrives - I just sent it this week, I am very sorry!
u/HexagonalRainbow - I loved your anime postcard but even more, I loved hearing about your concert!
u/isar-love (x2) - These cartoon owls with their hats and shoes on your card from March are AMAZING! (And the accompanying postcard with more behatted owls also made my day!) I agree with you very much that owl facial expressions are the thing that especially warms my heart to them. They seem so intelligent and curious and often kind (especially in illustrations) with their big eyes looking right at me! I have several little stuffed-animal friend owls, including two very special ones named Swoops (who is tan) and Fwoops (who is pink, though his name reference is from fuschia - he is a "Fuschia Swoops" - way better than a Pink Swoops, who I fear would have to be "Poops," LOL!) Thank you so much for your wonderful kindness and friendship and fun mail!
u/jaimekj - Thank you for the floral card, great stickers and most importantly your note and your friendship! I do like New Mexico (more than my part of the Southwest, honestly, but we had family reasons we picked where we did)! I'm crossing my fingers about an interest-rate drop. If I had my choice, I'd either like to find someone bigger in Washington, or move back to Pennsylvania, I think. There are ups and downs to both. And I will VERY much hate going back to snow, that's one thing I do love about where I am in the desert!
u/jvanct88 - I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to have a letter from you with an update (and updated address), dear friend! In one way, I am VERY sorry for all the things you have been finding out, but in another way I am happy that you finally know the truth and I believe that knowing it will be very helpful in having closure and a good feeling as you move to a new chapter in your life. And I am VERY hopeful that your tattoo came out amazing! I am a big, big fan of tattoos and piercings. A funny story is that I got 2 new tattoos and several piercings when my wife and I were separated, including a nosering, which she always said she hated. (She didn't mind other tattoos and piercings generally.) When we got back together, she apologized for ever saying that, and said how good it looks on me. That was nice, but I very plainly also told her, "I wouldn't care even if you hate it, because I love it and I'm keeping it forever." LOL! Anyway, I love this dinosaur princess cactus card and I am very happy to hear from you and will write to you again soon!
u/KatDuq (x3) - My dear friend!! This butterfly card you made to thank me for MY card in honor of your new letter opener is beautiful (as are the included penguin stickers, which are beautiful, of course!) I also loved your separate letter talking about the things you make. I do journal, sometimes, but I suffer from the problem of all notebook and journal-havers... I hate to USE the beautiful books I have lest I "mess them up!" What really helped me get out of that mindset somewhat was actually the Happy Planner notebooks, because I felt like I could always remove pages and rearrange! And now I am getting into bookbinding and I feel like that helps too because I can more easily make things "modular" and not have the fear of ruining a whole gigantic book right off the bat. I know that's perfectionism talking and I am working on getting rid of that mindset altogether, but for now, baby steps. And HUGE congrats on what you've sold, you definitely have a customer in me if you get an online store set up! Finally, thank you for the lovely oracle reading, which (unsurprisingly) was just what I needed to hear now, tonight, as I write this! I specifically didn't look closely at it until now because I figured I'd see it when the time was right and... yup. I did. You are amazing and I appreciate you sharing your beautiful new deck with me. (And that logo stamp you got! SO worth it, it looks amazing!)
u/littlemermaidxx - Your Pride Is Everyday postcard is beautiful - thank you so much! I have Pride happy mail coming your way too.
u/maiiiu (x3) - WOW, you are way too kind to me!! What an adorable thank-you postcard, first of all. And I adored your wonderful handmade penguin collage thank-you card too, and loved hearing the good news about your summer trip plans. I hope it is a truly special time for you and your dear best friend! And then this custom penguin stationery... WOW. You are just amazing and I am very grateful! (Also, the way you attached your sticker gifts in your collage card was great, I might steal that method.)
u/melhen16 - Where did you find this amazing desert-post-office-style card? Did you make it? It's amazing! (And thank you for the beautiful stickers, too!)
u/mumbagoespainting (x3) - Your handmade hometown card is so beautiful, my friend! I loved hearing how you learned to say it. (I admit - I get that one wrong on the first try and have to correct myself every time, despite being from not terribly far south, where we heard it more than occasionally!) And your watercolor dragon is absolutely fabulous!! I loved hearing that we have very similar color tastes - purples, grays, teal! Seeing the dragon pick up those colors was perfect. Finally, your black-and-white abstract card with the glitter made me smile, though I was sad to read about why you had to miss the trip... I hope you are feeling better! And, of course, thank you again for all your stickers and other extras and most importantly for your kindness and friendship. I am beyond grateful for you!!
u/ninajyang - I like the crafty postcard from Pipsticks! And yeah... Hairspray... love the music, definitely not sure about some other things... sigh.
u/nirelleth - I absolutely adore this great penguin and fox postcard for our "wish" exchange! I hope you like yours when it arrives, too. (I just sent it last week, I am so sorry for the wait!) I think my favorite fact about penguins is that they are not all polar; in fact, some of my favorites are temperate ones. (I say, in fact, that I myself am a "temperate pengin!")
u/non_avian (x3) - I am VERY sorry this has taken me so long to write (and even to open and fully enjoy). Your handmade Scoffby postcard with my past-present-future reading was absolutely amazing and is going on my "display shelf" of some of my most treasured cards! I need to know how you made his crystal ball, which is gorgeous! Also, please tell Scoffby that I am very much food-motivated (in fact, I just bribed myself tonight with hibachi). So, his signature chant is VERY well-placed when directed at me. I also adored your letter and the cute paper it was written on, and I am thrilled about the Furby washi card and all the goodies, too! I had no idea that Furby washi even existed, though I guess I shouldn't be surprised... and the capy noodles sticker and adorable penguins and everything else... I am so grateful. I have some mail coming your way very soon; all the "parts" are ready, I just need to put them together and actually get it sent!
u/Peonynote (x2) - Your cat thank-you card was adorable and most importantly, I am so excited for all your travels (and I LOVED seeing your penguin friends together!) And the lovely rainbow card with penguin stickers and super-cute penguin sticky note, in honor of Pride Month, made my day! I hope your walking is going well, still, now that it's getting warmer and stickier.
u/ResidentComposer1939 - I loved your sweet bird notecard and your penguin drawing (it's WAY better than my drawings, let me tell you!)
u/SherlockLady (x3) - Your beautiful butterfly card was lovely as it was, and then I saw the cute mini-card with the reminder about being the happiest/healthiest version of myself, AND the special penguin painting from your young carding apprentice... and wow, I just felt so special! What an awesome gift.
u/soft_distortion - This Gender Is Such a Drag postcard is perfecttttttttt. I loved hearing about the drag brunches too!
u/thecalendonianrose - This square penguin card is amazing and I am so grateful that you thought of sending it to me! (And all the stickers are lovely, thank you!) My wife and allllll the kitties say hello back.
u/TigerLady13 - This is definitely a late thanks, I apologize! But I appreciated the vintage Continental Divide postcard and the "Peng-Win" pun... made me giggle!
u/TyeDyeAmish - I love this pufferfish card, and I have really enjoyed getting to chat with you recently! Most importantly, how was the book sale?! I'm fairly certain it's one I've been to in the past, based on the date you said you were going, and I miss it and a few others in the area so much!
u/umeshufan - Why, yes, this Cat Island postcard DOES look like my house, and yes, there are really 19 inside, and even funnier, YES, I am allergic to cats. The thing is, you do build up a tolerance to ones you are around regularly, but when I travel and then come back, it is truly a nightmare. Thankfully I almost never let any in my bedroom and never to sleep, so I can at least breathe overnight!
u/wabisabi_sf (x2) - My friend, I am in awe of these amazing pink-and-penguin-themed pieces of happy mail!! I had never seen these before and I am DEFINITELY going to be getting more. You are so wonderful to me!
u/welshfancy (x5) - Thanks for the Laughlin postcard (very belatedly)! Your trip to Long Beach sounds almost as multi-stop as my recent cards' journeys to you, though thankfully you didn't need your passport, at least?! And thank you also for the amazing handmade "blooms" collage card (which, as far as I'm concerned, is appropriate for spring OR summer, so it seems perfectly timed to me); the great cat mini-card that you wrote while either eating breakfast or getting your tires changed on your travels; the penguin-with-J-based-life-preserver doodle (which I thought was GREAT, so don't even say it's worse than your others, which I also liked!); and your lovely letter on penguin paper, plus of course the bonus stationery! You spoil me!! I'm thinking of you as you try to decide "what's next" locationally, too.
u/yetanotherblankface - I think your beautiful handmade card for the "Hometown" meta challenge is giving exactly the right vibes! It certainly made me feel cozy and relaxed, which is the feeling I'd most like to associate with home.
u/yviantics - Your hand-drawn Pink Party Penguin postcard with its lovely hat, and the great penguin sticker, absolutely made my day!! I do not draw well at all and I am always amazed when people who can will share their talent with me. Thank you so, so much! (And, by the way, I tried the bananas-and-barbecue-chips combo and was really surprised at how good it was, so thanks for that, too!)
u/56thorns and u/UseYourRuler - Thank you for the wonderful postcard from the "Falls!" My wife and I were there to ring in the New Year for 2019 and I've been a couple other times too. Such a lovely place for a getaway, and it sounds like you had fun!
u/todayisfab, u/sebisrude and u/KeenEvergreen - In my stack of not-thanked-yet mail I found my very own postcard from our meetup, and it made me smile all over again. Thank you all so much, again, for a fun day. And to whichever of you put penguin stickers on this along with the cacti - I am super impressed that you pulled that off without me noticing, they are WAY too cute.

I'm located in the Bay Area, CA and have visited quite a few states. Only a few of them I enjoyed, but the rest weren't that great. That said, I'd love to travel around the states some more, but would love to go somewhere where I'll enjoy my time.
Places I've enjoyed:
- Hawaii (Oahu and Big Island) - absolutely beautiful beaches and hikes, only complaint is the amount of tourists
- Austin/San Antonio TX - I loved the culture here (both in the city and outskirts) and people were extremely friendly. I've gone to Austin multiple times and every time has been a good time.
- Utah - The national parks here are absolutely gorgeous and well worth the travels, but the only problem is the distance in relation to what is around. IIRC, you're easily driving 2-3hrs+ just to get anywhere.
- Las Vegas NV - I absolutely love the city vibe here and how dense the city (in the strip) is, but the amount of tourists is a bit bothersome.
- AZ - depending on the town, there's some nice things to see.
- Montana - While it's quite empty, I loved how clear the air was and Glacier National Park was an absolute treat.
Places I didn't enjoy:
- Washington/Oregon - It just felt like a downgraded San Francisco to me. Cost was still high, yet quality of food/service seemed to be lower.
- Idaho/Wyoming - were relatively boring to me as you had to drive for hours to get pretty much anywhere...
- Colorado - Ski parks are amazing here, but I don't think they were worth the chaos of trying to fly out there and deal with how packed those ski resorts get.
- Florida/Georgia/Tennessee/Alabama/South Carolina - my absolute will not go to again. I've only been once to this area and hated pretty much every moment of it. I tried my best to enjoy it but people here were extremely rude and there's really not much interesting things. Their "points of interest" are mediocre at best IMO. Worst part was we went to all the local recommended spots + went to highly reviewed restaurants and the food was mediocre at best. At some point during the trip, I just gave up and just ate fast food for the remainder because it taste just as good without the expensive price tag.