When I was brand new to NovelAi I had no idea how 2048 tokens really looked as text. So for anyone looking at the tiers, trying to decide how many tokens they want for Clio with the new update, I've tokenized Part of The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald (public domain since 2021).
That way new users can more easily visualize what the AI's maximum context is for each tier. According to the UI Clio uses the NerdStash Tokenizer, as different tokenizers will convert text to tokens their own way.
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In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought—frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.
And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes, but after a certain point I don’t care what it’s founded on. When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the “creative temperament”—it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No—Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.
My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations. The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we’re descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather’s brother, who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on today.
I never saw this great-uncle, but I’m supposed to look like him—with special reference to the rather hard-boiled painting that hangs in father’s office. I graduated from New Haven in 1915, just a quarter of a century after my father, and a little later I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War. I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless. Instead of being the warm centre of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go East and learn the bond business. Everybody I knew was in the bond business, so I supposed it could support one more single man. All my aunts and uncles talked it over as if they were choosing a prep school for me, and finally said, “Why—ye-es,” with very grave, hesitant faces. Father agreed to finance me for a year, and after various delays I came East, permanently, I thought, in the spring of twenty-two.
The practical thing was to find rooms in the city, but it was a warm season, and I had just left a country of wide lawns and friendly trees, so when a young man at the office suggested that we take a house together in a commuting town, it sounded like a great idea. He found the house, a weather-beaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month, but at the last minute the firm ordered him to Washington, and I went out to the country alone. I had a dog—at least I had him for a few days until he ran away—and an old Dodge and a Finnish woman, who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.
It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some man, more recently arrived than I, stopped me on the road.
“How do you get to West Egg village?” he asked helplessly.
I told him. And as I walked on I was lonely no longer. I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler. He had casually conferred on me the freedom of the neighbourhood.
And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.
There was so much to read, for one thing, and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breath-giving air. I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities, and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew. And I had the high intention of reading many other books besides. I was rather literary in college—one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the Yale News—and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most limited of all specialists, the “well-rounded man.” This isn’t just an epigram—life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all.
It was a matter of chance that I should have rented a house in one of the strangest communities in North America. It was on that slender riotous island which extends itself due east of New York—and where there are, among other natural curiosities, two unusual formations of land. Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound. They are not perfect ovals—like the egg in the Columbus story, they are both crushed flat at the contact end—but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual wonder to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more interesting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size.
I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion. Or, rather, as I didn’t know Mr. Gatsby, it was a mansion inhabited by a gentleman of that name. My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbour’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month.
Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I’d known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.
Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savours of anticlimax. His family were enormously wealthy—even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach—but now he’d left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away: for instance, he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.
Why they came East I don’t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together. This was a permanent move, said Daisy over the telephone, but I didn’t believe it—I had no sight into Daisy’s heart, but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game.
And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all. Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran towards the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sundials and brick walks and burning gardens—finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run. The front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold and wide open to the warm windy afternoon, and Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch.
He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty, with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body.
His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.
“Now, don’t think my opinion on these matters is final,” he seemed to say, “just because I’m stronger and more of a man than you are.” We were in the same senior society, and while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own.
We talked for a few minutes on the sunny porch.
“I’ve got a nice place here,” he said, his eyes flashing about restlessly.
Turning me around by one arm, he moved a broad flat hand along the front vista, including in its sweep a sunken Italian garden, a half acre of deep, pungent roses, and a snub-nosed motorboat that bumped the tide offshore.
“It belonged to Demaine, the oil man.” He turned me around again, politely and abruptly. “We’ll go inside.”
We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-coloured space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-coloured rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.
The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.
The younger of the two was a stranger to me. She was extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall. If she saw me out of the corner of her eyes she gave no hint of it—indeed, I was almost surprised into murmuring an apology for having disturbed her by coming in.
The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise—she leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression—then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh, and I laughed too and came forward into the room.
“I’m p-paralysed with happiness.”
She
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laughed again, as if she said something very witty, and held my hand for a moment, looking up into my face, promising that there was no one in the world she so much wanted to see. That was a way she had. She hinted in a murmur that the surname of the balancing girl was Baker. (I’ve heard it said that Daisy’s murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.)
At any rate, Miss Baker’s lips fluttered, she nodded at me almost imperceptibly, and then quickly tipped her head back again—the object she was balancing had obviously tottered a little and given her something of a fright. Again a sort of apology arose to my lips. Almost any exhibition of complete self-sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me.
I looked back at my cousin, who began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again. Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour.
I told her how I had stopped off in Chicago for a day on my way East, and how a dozen people had sent their love through me.
“Do they miss me?” she cried ecstatically.
“The whole town is desolate. All the cars have the left rear wheel painted black as a mourning wreath, and there’s a persistent wail all night along the north shore.”
“How gorgeous! Let’s go back, Tom. Tomorrow!” Then she added irrelevantly: “You ought to see the baby.”
“I’d like to.”
“She’s asleep. She’s three years old. Haven’t you ever seen her?”
“Never.”
“Well, you ought to see her. She’s—”
Tom Buchanan, who had been hovering restlessly about the room, stopped and rested his hand on my shoulder.
“What you doing, Nick?”
“I’m a bond man.”
“Who with?”
I told him.
“Never heard of them,” he remarked decisively.
This annoyed me.
“You will,” I answered shortly. “You will if you stay in the East.”
“Oh, I’ll stay in the East, don’t you worry,” he said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me, as if he were alert for something more. “I’d be a God damned fool to live anywhere else.”
At this point Miss Baker said: “Absolutely!” with such suddenness that I started—it was the first word she had uttered since I came into the room. Evidently it surprised her as much as it did me, for she yawned and with a series of rapid, deft movements stood up into the room.
“I’m stiff,” she complained, “I’ve been lying on that sofa for as long as I can remember.”
“Don’t look at me,” Daisy retorted, “I’ve been trying to get you to New York all afternoon.”
“No, thanks,” said Miss Baker to the four cocktails just in from the pantry. “I’m absolutely in training.”
Her host looked at her incredulously.
“You are!” He took down his drink as if it were a drop in the bottom of a glass. “How you ever get anything done is beyond me.”
I looked at Miss Baker, wondering what it was she “got done.” I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet. Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face. It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before.
“You live in West Egg,” she remarked contemptuously. “I know somebody there.”
“I don’t know a single—”
“You must know Gatsby.”
“Gatsby?” demanded Daisy. “What Gatsby?”
Before I could reply that he was my neighbour dinner was announced; wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.
Slenderly, languidly, their hands set lightly on their hips, the two young women preceded us out on to a rosy-coloured porch, open toward the sunset, where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind.
“Why candles?” objected Daisy, frowning. She snapped them out with her fingers. “In two weeks it’ll be the longest day in the year.” She looked at us all radiantly. “Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it.”
“We ought to plan something,” yawned Miss Baker, sitting down at the table as if she were getting into bed.
“All right,” said Daisy. “What’ll we plan?” She turned to me helplessly: “What do people plan?”
Before I could answer her eyes fastened with an awed expression on her little finger.
“Look!” she complained; “I hurt it.”
We all looked—the knuckle was black and blue.
“You did it, Tom,” she said accusingly. “I know you didn’t mean to, but you did do it. That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen of a—”
“I hate that word ‘hulking,’ ” objected Tom crossly, “even in kidding.”
“Hulking,” insisted Daisy.
Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire. They were here, and they accepted Tom and me, making only a polite pleasant effort to entertain or to be entertained. They knew that presently dinner would be over and a little later the evening too would be over and casually put away. It was sharply different from the West, where an evening was hurried from phase to phase towards its close, in a continually disappointed anticipation or else in sheer nervous dread of the moment itself.
“You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy,” I confessed on my second glass of corky but rather impressive claret. “Can’t you talk about crops or something?”
I meant nothing in particular by this remark, but it was taken up in an unexpected way.
“Civilization’s going to pieces,” broke out Tom violently. “I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read The Rise of the Coloured Empires by this man Goddard?”
“Why, no,” I answered, rather surprised by his tone.
“Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.”
“Tom’s getting very profound,” said Daisy, with an expression of unthoughtful sadness. “He reads deep books with long words in them. What was that word we—”
“Well, these books are all scientific,” insisted Tom, glancing at her impatiently. “This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.”
“We’ve got to beat them down,” whispered Daisy, winking ferociously toward the fervent sun.
“You ought to live in California—” began Miss Baker, but Tom interrupted her by shifting heavily in his chair.
“This idea is that we’re Nordics. I am, and you are, and you are, and—” After an infinitesimal hesitation he included Daisy with a slight nod, and she winked at me again. “—And we’ve produced all the things that go to make civilization—oh, science and art, and all that. Do you see?”
There was something pathetic in his concentration, as if his complacency, more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more. When, almost immediately, the telephone rang inside and the butler left the porch Daisy seized upon the momentary interruption and leaned towards me.
“I’ll tell you a family secret,” she whispered enthusiastically. “It’s about the butler’s nose. Do you want to hear about the butler’s nose?”
“That’s why I came over tonight.”
“Well, he wasn’t always a butler; he used to be the silver polisher for some people in New York that had a silver service for two hundred people. He had to polish it from morning till night, until finally it began to affect his nose—”
“Things went from bad to worse,” suggested Miss Baker.
“Yes. Things went from bad to worse, until finally he had to give up his position.”
For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened—then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk.
The butler came back and murmured something close to Tom’s ear, whereupon Tom frowned, pushed back his chair, and without a word went inside. As if his absence quickened something within her, Daisy leaned forward again, her voice glowing and singing.
“I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a—of a rose, an absolute rose. Doesn’t he?” She turned to Miss Baker for confirmation: “An absolute rose?”
This was untrue. I am not even faintly like a rose. She was only extemporizing, but a stirring warmth flowed from her, as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those breathless, thrilling words. Then suddenly she threw her napkin on the table and excused herself and went into the house.
Miss Baker and I exchanged a short glance consciously devoid of meaning. I was about to speak when she sat up alertly and said “Sh!” in a warning voice. A subdued impassioned murmur was audible in the room beyond, and Miss Baker leaned forward unashamed, trying to hear. The murmur trembled on the verge of coherence, sank down, mounted excitedly, and then ceased altogether.
“This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbour—” I began.
“Don’t talk. I want to hear what happens.”
“Is something happening?” I inquired innocently.
“You mean to say you don’t know?” said Miss Baker, honestly surprised. “I thought everybody knew.”
“I don’t.”
“Why—” she said hesitantly. “Tom’s got some woman in New York.”
“Got some woman?” I repeated blankly.
Miss Baker nodded.
“She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time. Don’t you think?”
Almost before I had grasped her meaning there was the flutter of a dress and the crunch of leather boots, and Tom and Daisy were back at the table.
“It couldn’t be helped!” cried Daisy with tense gaiety.
She sat down, glanced searchingly at Miss Baker and then at me, and continued: “I looked outdoors for a minute, and it’s very romantic outdoors. There’s a bird on the lawn that I think must be a nightingale come over on the Cunard or White Star Line. He’s singing away—” Her voice sang: “It’s romantic, isn’t it, Tom?”
“Very romantic,” he said, and then miserably to me: “If it’s light enough after dinner, I want to take you down to the stables.”
The telephone rang inside, startlingly, and as Daisy shook her head decisively at Tom the subject of the stables, in fact all subjects, vanished into air. Among the broken fragments of the last five minutes at table I remember the candles being lit again, pointlessly, and I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at everyone, and yet to avoid all eyes. I couldn’t guess what Daisy and Tom were thinking, but I doubt if even Miss Baker, who seemed to have mastered a certain hardy scepticism, was able utterly to put this fifth guest’s shrill metallic urgency out of mind. To a certain temperament the situation might have seemed intriguing—my own instinct was to telephone immediately for the police.
The horses, needless to say, were not mentioned again. Tom and Miss Baker, with several feet of twilight between them, strolled back into the library, as if to a vigil beside a perfectly tangible body, while, trying to look pleasantly interested and a little deaf, I followed Daisy around a chain of connecting verandas to the porch in front. In its deep gloom we sat down side by side on a wicker settee.
Daisy took her face in her hands as if feeling its lovely shape, and her eyes moved gradually out into the velvet dusk. I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I asked what I thought would be some sedative questions about her little girl.
“We don’t know each other very well, Nick,” she said suddenly. “Even if we are cousins. You didn’t come to my wedding.”
“I wasn’t back from the war.”
“That’s true.” She hesitated. “Well, I’ve had a very bad time, Nick, and I’m pretty cynical about everything.”
Evidently she had reason to be. I waited but she
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didn’t say any more, and after a moment I returned rather feebly to the subject of her daughter.
“I suppose she talks, and—eats, and everything.”
“Oh, yes.” She looked at me absently. “Listen, Nick; let me tell you what I said when she was born. Would you like to hear?”
“Very much.”
“It’ll show you how I’ve gotten to feel about—things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling, and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’
“You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow,” she went on in a convinced way. “Everybody thinks so—the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.” Her eyes flashed around her in a defiant way, rather like Tom’s, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. “Sophisticated—God, I’m sophisticated!”
The instant her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said. It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me. I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face, as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.
Inside, the crimson room bloomed with light. Tom and Miss Baker sat at either end of the long couch and she read aloud to him from the Saturday Evening Post—the words, murmurous and uninflected, running together in a soothing tune. The lamplight, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf yellow of her hair, glinted along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender muscles in her arms.
When we came in she held us silent for a moment with a lifted hand.
“To be continued,” she said, tossing the magazine on the table, “in our very next issue.”
Her body asserted itself with a restless movement of her knee, and she stood up.
“Ten o’clock,” she remarked, apparently finding the time on the ceiling. “Time for this good girl to go to bed.”
“Jordan’s going to play in the tournament tomorrow,” explained Daisy, “over at Westchester.”
“Oh—you’re Jordan Baker.”
I knew now why her face was familiar—its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me from many rotogravure pictures of the sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach. I had heard some story of her too, a critical, unpleasant story, but what it was I had forgotten long ago.
“Good night,” she said softly. “Wake me at eight, won’t you.”
“If you’ll get up.”
“I will. Good night, Mr. Carraway. See you anon.”
“Of course you will,” confirmed Daisy. “In fact I think I’ll arrange a marriage. Come over often, Nick, and I’ll sort of—oh—fling you together. You know—lock you up accidentally in linen closets and push you out to sea in a boat, and all that sort of thing—”
“Good night,” called Miss Baker from the stairs. “I haven’t heard a word.”
“She’s a nice girl,” said Tom after a moment. “They oughtn’t to let her run around the country this way.”
“Who oughtn’t to?” inquired Daisy coldly.
“Her family.”
“Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. Besides, Nick’s going to look after her, aren’t you, Nick? She’s going to spend lots of weekends out here this summer. I think the home influence will be very good for her.”
Daisy and Tom looked at each other for a moment in silence.
“Is she from New York?” I asked quickly.
“From Louisville. Our white girlhood was passed together there. Our beautiful white—”
“Did you give Nick a little heart to heart talk on the veranda?” demanded Tom suddenly.
“Did I?” She looked at me. “I can’t seem to remember, but I think we talked about the Nordic race. Yes, I’m sure we did. It sort of crept up on us and first thing you know—”
“Don’t believe everything you hear, Nick,” he advised me.
I said lightly that I had heard nothing at all, and a few minutes later I got up to go home. They came to the door with me and stood side by side in a cheerful square of light. As I started my motor Daisy peremptorily called: “Wait!”
“I forgot to ask you something, and it’s important. We heard you were engaged to a girl out West.”
“That’s right,” corroborated Tom kindly. “We heard that you were engaged.”
“It’s a libel. I’m too poor.”
“But we heard it,” insisted Daisy, surprising me by opening up again in a flower-like way. “We heard it from three people, so it must be true.”
Of course I knew what they were referring to, but I wasn’t even vaguely engaged. The fact that gossip had published the banns was one of the reasons I had come East. You can’t stop going with an old friend on account of rumours, and on the other hand I had no intention of being rumoured into marriage.
Their interest rather touched me and made them less remotely rich—nevertheless, I was confused and a little disgusted as I drove away. It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of the house, child in arms—but apparently there were no such intentions in her head. As for Tom, the fact that he “had some woman in New York” was really less surprising than that he had been depressed by a book. Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.
Already it was deep summer on roadhouse roofs and in front of wayside garages, where new red petrol-pumps sat out in pools of light, and when I reached my estate at West Egg I ran the car under its shed and sat for a while on an abandoned grass roller in the yard. The wind had blown off, leaving a loud, bright night, with wings beating in the trees and a persistent organ sound as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life. The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight, and, turning my head to watch it, I saw that I was not alone—fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbour’s mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars. Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was his of our local heavens.
I decided to call to him. Miss Baker had mentioned him at dinner, and that would do for an introduction. But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.
II
About halfway between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.
But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to
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This server has a hardcore vanilla feel but with tasteful mods and cool features that aren't available in official servers. Check it out if you're interested! I'm hoping to grow a community of DayZ enthusiasts who love the vanilla plus experience.
Server Features
Active admins
Vanilla stamina and loot economy
Dark nights
NVGs can spawn in any military area
AK101 and AK74 have rare green and black versions along with the individual attachments spawning rarely
Green and black M4 attachments also spawn rarely
Camo and green plate carriers spawn in military areas
Black plate carriers spawn in dynamic events
Plate carrier attachments of all colors spawn in military areas
Shoes spawn pristine or worn
Loot spawns in green military towers
Less useless items like thermometers and construction helmets
Flashlight have a chance to spawn with a battery
Witch hoods spawn in red, brown, and black variants
Military backpacks with weapon slots rarely spawn in dynamic events and toxic zones
Noteworthy Mods
Advanced Weapon Scopes-Adds a better variety of scopes and adapters.
Autorun
BuildEverywhere
Building Fortifications-Adds the ability to build window barricades and doors with a vanilla feel. Window barricade kits and door kits are crafted the same way as vanilla wall kits (rope and sticks).
Car Cover-Allows vehicles to be covered with camo nets.
Code Lock
Ear Plugs
Flip Transport-Allows vehicles to be "pushed" in case they get stuck or flip over.
MMG Base Storage-Adds many new storage items such as cabinets, gun racks, and safes.
MMG Civilian Clothing
No Vehicle Damage-Vehicles can no longer take collision damage however they can still be damaged with bullets, explosives, overrevving, deep water, or driving without enough water in the radiator.
Red Falcon Flight System Heliz-Adds helicopters into the game which mostly spawn in military areas. They will require parts, fuel, and hydraulic fluid to operate.
RFFS Heli Car Cover Addon-Adds the ability to cover helicopters with camo nets.
Trader Plus-Adds car codelocks and car lockpicks which are both rare on this server. Car codelocks can be found in the same areas as codelocks however car lockpicks only spawn at dynamic events such as helicopter crashes. Please note that this server does not have traders.
Vehicle 3PP
ViewInventoryAnimation
WindstridesClothingPack
Zen Notes-Adds pens to the server which can be combined with paper to write custom notes that can be stuck to surfaces.
Please feel free to check out my discord for more information
https://discord.gg/xuayHU9V

I always knew they were underrated and underused, often left for side games (or straight up replaced in certain games) but today while talking about Daisy i JUST realized how bad it really is.
REMEMBER I havent played every single Mario game, if there is any game where either of them get a spotlight and i didnt mention it PLEASE do tell. I wanna learn more. This is just what I know, or at least what i can remember.
As a personal rule i dont often ask for much. A character doesnt need to be "The new face of the franchise" or be a big member on every single game/Movie/etc to feel well represented. All they need is a handful of fun and cool "spotlight moments" where those characters can shine.
Mario and Luigi werent that different but then Luigi explodes in personality on games like Paper Mario series and Luigi's mansion, showing him that yes he is terrified of most things but when the chips are down he is will to push despite it all for the sake of his friends.
Mario as bland and "generic brand face" as he can be has had his moments of personality, like the Mario and luigi games he is fearless, sometimes to his own detriment, and too eager to rush into trouble. In some sports games he is even shown to get a lil salty when loosing.
Peach is usually the "Generic Princess" character but slowly showed to properly embody the ruler ideals. Firm, compassionate, diplomatic and resourceful when she is allowed to, and of course a touch of sass when she wants to a lil spicy.
DK and crew have their own games that develops their characters, where DK is a strong lovable dummy but serious when someone threatens his home. Also that Mario and Rabbits DK DLC wich was a love letter for everything DK.
Bowser gets a surprising amount of detail in side games. Where he is a loving father, egocentric and overconfident in his own power, also more of a straight man to other people's shenanigans, surprisingly.
Wario, who started out as just "Evil Mario", is consistently shown to be so greedy that that doesnt matter where he needs to go or what stands in his way, he WILL get money, he WILL get what he wants (even if it backfires later down the line). Then in Wario ware he prefers to make money my spamming micro games, pumping as many games out with as little effort as possible.
While the Original Yoshi doesnt get much on his own the whole race is explored a decent amount, usually as side characters but sometimes you get main Yoshi characters like in Paper Mario. Funny enough rather than personality Yoshi has one of the more unique gameplay styles consistently, from Mario World, Yoshi Island and even Smash bros he is always mechanically interesting.
Hell Rosalina, who only had to games to her name, may be a secondary character in those games but shows a lot of personality and quite the presence. Enough for her to be a quite unique character in Smash brothers, before Daisy and Waluigi.
Also this is probably just me but Rosalina always gave me vibes of a character who is super chill but is powerful enough to snap you out of existence if she wanted to.
Now on to the Waluigi and Daisy
Waluigi has only two spotlight moments. As one of the main antagonist of DDR Mario Mix and in Mario Party 3 where he in story mode he defeats Bowser to challenge the protagonist on his own Board. Besides that he is usually just Wario's sidekick or is just not there. And of course he should be In Smash already but we all know that already.
Also his powers are consistently inconsistent but this has been going on for so long I think they should keep it, Waluigi is just an unpredictable ball of random, with good fashion sense too.
Daisy only big moment is in Mario Part 3 where in Story mode she tries to convince the Millenium Star to give her the star stamp, Bowser tries to Interrupt them but Daisy just smacks him into the sky and fights the player. No other big story moment.
She does shine in Mario Strikers, her personality in plain view for everyone and in Charged she even gets unique Crystal powers.
From personal experience I can also include the fact that in Mario Kart Wii Daisy (and her Baby Form) are often considered one of the best characters, alongside Funky Kong. I just think its neat.
All that is cool but thats like pennies compared to what everyone else has going for. Neither have gone past "that one side character who is always there but doesnt do much", not even in side games known to develop take obscure character or ideas like Paper Mario or Mario and Rabbits series.
Both of them are always just "the sidekicks" to their respective main character, something that was Luigi's fate until he started getting games and making major side roles in others. Luigi is still Mario's sidekick yes but he is also THE sidekick, lovable coward, the bro with the heart of gold, that guy who faces his fears to help others, the character who jumps higher than Mario, The bro who often shows more Personality than Mario.
It took up until Ultimate to have Daisy as her own playable character in Smash, Waluigi wasnt as lucky despite being an Assist trophy since Brawl, the model is already there. Both of them having more than enough potential to have their own gameplay, probably to represent the Sports and Party games more than Peach does.
So yeah, Daisy and Waluigi have it worst than I ever though when you get down to it.
A shame because I think they have potential to be great characters on their own right, even if just cool supporting cast members.
Still confuses me why Waluigi wasnt part of Warioware, they gave Wario his own new look and a bunch of new characters yet dont bring the one character that was Specifically made to be Wario's sidekick?
And for Daisy, the only game to really show her off as her own character, not just "the other princess", is Strikers. She is loud, kinda crude, boastful and a very sore looser (wich fits Waluigi too, funny enough).
Same with Smash bros, the game already has completed many pairs/Rivals: Dk and Diddy vs King K. Rool, Bowser and Jr, Fox, Falco and Wolf, Kirby, Meta knight and Dedede, Link, Zelda and gannondorf, Samus vs Ridley, Cloud and Sephiroth WHO ARE THIRD PARTY CHARACTERS.
But they make Daisy a Peach clone with so little changes she might as well just be a costume when she has a lot of games to pull from for a moveset. Waluigi isnt even playable despite being an assist since Brawl, where Wario premiered as well.
A shame, from what i have read they both have more than enough material to be their own characters in Smash bros, or at least be major supporting characters on games with a story that lets them express themselves more, again like what all the RPG Mario games have done to Peach, she stopped being the "generic pretty princess" a long time ago, way before the movie.
Daisy and Waluigi just need a developer or screen writer who is willing to do the same for them. Wish i could, I do have some ideas, maybe one day.
Thast my rant for the day, if you know more spotlight moments for either of them, either story or gameplay wise, do share them, I wanna know more about them and what could be used for future appearances.

So in EFAP200.2, they covered RLM's 2nd Kenobi re:View (an abridged, edited version of it - which is gonna be highly relevant here in this post), and the 2 most glaring segments from that video also made for stand-out moments in the EFAP reaction - for entirely different, one can even say diametrically opposed reasons:
 
1)

Rich: "I don't know, it's cause-.. it's cause in Jedi Luke gets the cult personality, he - he becomes a Jedi, and he instantly becomes boring" Jay: "Yeah.. yeah..." Rich: "He goes from the, the.... – [upbeat hand gesture] the farm boy looking for adventure, to: "Yes, fa-ther, I-sense-the-good-in-you..."" Jay: "Mhm..." Rich: ""I-have-drained-all-emotion-from-my-perso-na-li-tyyy... I'm-creepy-nooow...."" Jay: [laughs] Rich: ""No, Emperor, I-will-ne-ver-join-you, I-am-a-Je-di.. – like-my-fa-theeerr... I-have-been-pro-grammed-into-the-Jedi-cult-now...."" Jay: [chuckles] Mike: "He becomes Creepy Priest Man.." Rich: "Yeah, he does; - that's, Luke's arc, he becomes a creepy priest man." Jay: [laughs] Mike: "That's fair;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m91A_DGIYRg&t=498m1s (8:18:01)
Obviously EFAP completely wipe the floor with this segment, incl. via those edited in film clips from the scenes Rich is talking about, and the direct side-by-side line delivery comparisons.
So.... MauLer stands victorious?
Oh but wait, NOT SO FAST, ENGLISH - cause this 2nd example kind of serves as a huge contrast: 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h2pU6lLW4g&t=32m12s

32:12- ...Mike: "it didn't- it didn't answer one question though, and I was curious... towards the end: she.. Reva goes.. to Tatooine, - to find Luke Skywalker to kill him?.." Jay: "Mhm." Rich: "Yea." Mike: "to get-... reve- what was she doing there for, to get revenge on Vader?" Jay: "Revenge on Vader, yeah.." Mike: "okay; -" Rich: ""How does she know, that.. Luke is Vader's son, based on what she heard"?"
 
Bail: "If he's found you, if he's learned of the children... if I don't hear from you soon – I'll head to Tatooine. Owen will need help with the boy." Reva: "I'm looking for a farmer... name's Owen."
 
Mike: "and um... - ..ok; I'm, I'm-.. I'm fine with that, but I thought they were gonna to answer the question of, how does Vader.... know that Luke is his son?" Rich: "He doesn't. He still doesn't." Mike: "Right.. – uh-.. cause he does-" Jay: "[laughs] Season 2..." Mike: "– well maybe... in something future,.. - but, um..." Rich: "Well no, because, the second he learns, - obviously he would do the most obvious thing and go to Tatooine, right, I mean-.." Mike: "Cause- cause very clearly... you know - Vader knew.... in Empire – right; obviously – cause he reveals it to Luke;" Rich: "Yea." Mike: "; and... - so.... he knew.....
Unless he kne- found out somewhere between A New Hope and Empire..[chuckling]"
 
Jay: "I think he just figured it out cause they're- both their last names are Skywalker." Rich: "[laughs]oh that's right.. – they didn't even change Luke's fucking name..." Jay: "They didn't even change his name.
Because these- this whole thing is stupid." Rich: "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST...." Jay: "Mhm;.. and they put him on Tatooine – the most obvious place."
[...]
Mike: "He's got the paper out.. []" Rich: [laughs] Mike: ""Local farm boy Luke Skywalker blows up Death Star.".." Rich: "D'you suppose he felt like an idiot,.. - when it turned out he was on.. Tatooine the whole time, too?.." Mike: "yeah.."
 
Jay: "Well that's another thing, at the end of this, Reva knows that Luke is on Tatooine - so it's not like some big mystery.. anymore; she's probably gonna tell somebody at some point, right?.." Mike: "yeah, but, I guess Vader cannot find out - until... after A New Hope, or else, logically, he would've gone there? – and,.. scooped up his son, I guess? - and said: ..w-.. you're, with me? ..- I'm gonna teach you to be my new apprentice and.. whatever?" Rich: "This is why I don't care about star wars canon;" Jay: [laughs] Rich: "if you cared about Star Wars canon, – it would be impossible to enjoy Star Wars.
When you watch, - when you watch the original trilogy, you just have to forget that the prequels exist, when you watch this you have to forget everything else existed.." Jay: [laughs] Rich: "- it's the only way you can enjoy this shit."

 
As can obviously clearly be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m91A_DGIYRg&t=491m14s (8:11:14)
, Mauler has edited out this segment, and only leaves this ending conclusion bit here:

35:26- Jay: [laughs] Rich: "if you cared about Star Wars canon, – it would be impossible to enjoy Star Wars.
When you watch, - when you watch the original trilogy, you just have to forget, that the prequels exist, when you watch this you have to forget everything else existed.." Jay: [laughs] Rich: "- it's the only way you can enjoy this shit."

 
(Having jumping straight from this bit here:

Jay: "the- fact that he thought about it, is enough to send... uhhh, a bunch of manbabies into a f-.. a fit... [laughs]" Mike: "I- .... - I was fine with that.." -29:38

, as you can see at that EFAP timestamp.
So there's 3 minutes between that and the start of the segment where RLM start talking about Luke on Tatooine (32:12) and eventually figure out the horrible truth, and then 3 more minutes to Rich's eventual conclusion that this EFAP edit then does include (35:26) - which all amounts to a skip of 6 minutes.)
 
And then this is what Rags has to say in response:

"So is that my fault, or is it the-.. writers' fault? Why is it my fucking fault?.. I mean I'm sorry I care about the canon of stories I used to enjoy...? It's NOT MY FAULT!"
Mauler: "Doesn't this apply to-.... you know, all of the franchises that get fucked..."
Rags: "You know that-.... like.. you know you literally can't control what you care about, right - that- that's literally something you cannot control. It's, it's a result of things - ..right, you can't just, 'oh, let me just-.. literally stop caring', it's like. no: you realize you stopped caring because of something.
..Like, I can't just hit the switch, and I care about Star Wars again? And then the next day hit the switch again and I no longer care about..-"
?: "Yeah,.. he stopped caring because Disney stopped caring...." Adam: "Yeah, exactly..."
Rags: "Yeah! - I stopped caring as a result of what was done with the franchise..
..I care- well I care about the original trilogy?"
?: "Yeah yeah!.."
Rags: "I care about the prequels, [?]"
( ?: "Been a while since this whole [?] started, but like, it's so crazy still that.. so many writers.. care about their properties, like.... insignificantly, compared to the fans, it's... - Like, how can you write, without.. caring, about that... I don't get it."
Mauler: "Disney have... made a whole production line for everything.. -" ?: "-i know! [?]" Mauler: "- they figured it out, man!" [...] Rags: "They've built an evil empire out of doing it.." )

"..I care- well I care about the original trilogy?" - interesting remark, given how Rich's "this is why I don't care about Star Wars canon" statement is a direct conclusion/follow-up to a 3 minute long segment that highlights a rather extremely "canon"-breaking issue in that very same "original trilogy"; if not, in this particular case, in the "contradicting something" department, then certainly in the "main characters not behaving lucidly" department.
Or what did Rags think Rich was referring to? Jake "contradicting his character" / "acting unjustifiably" in that flashback scene, as is arguably suggested by the edit jump? Or some strange character action from Kenobi, like, uh, Obiwan letting Vader go?
Like those are among the "canon-breaking" things from "what Disney did with the franchise" that "made him stop caring"?

?: "Yeah,.. he stopped caring because Disney stopped caring...."

However no, turns out they were talking about the original 1977 movie. I wonder what his and the others' reaction would've been had that segment been played? It certainly would've had to be very different in parts - compared to the one quoted here?
 
Then Anna The Star Wars Girl seems to kinda start having a realization of sorts, but... doesn't quite arrive there? I'm not sure:

"yeah.... Well you know what, even by this point that he's making, it's like,.. well what about.. movies that take place in the real world, where they just have to do, like, the special effects, so that way it would- makes a cool shot - and it doesn't work within.. - the "canon of reality", but we don't.. care, cause we're watching it and it's a cool movie.. - You know, it's like.....
.. - I don't even think they care about what they're saying, or if they even realize the ramifications of what they're saying.."
Mauler: "Which.. yeah; uhhh... - a lot of people say that's why they're saying this bizarre shit - cause they don't know what else to say..." [...]

So.... what's the point being made here again?
 
And the conclusion of this all? Both groups = hackfrauds. (Certainly part-tiiiiime.)
Efap need to become aware of certain things, at the very least, before they can ever be the voice of reason on this subject - and seems like in this case, the opportunity they had for at least some of that got "luckily" edited out of the clip. Unless they've somehow improved in the year since that aired?

Really, I just need to rant. I know most of this is old news now. But no one I know IRL reads these comics, so I gotta let it out somewhere...
I tend to binge comics every so often instead of reading month-to-month, as I find it easier to keep up that way (and single issues are no longer substantial enough to feel worth it honestly). So I last left off after Spencer's run. Read Beyond in two days, and then Wells' run (including most Dark Web tie-ins) in another two days.
So, first off...
BEYOND
I didn't hate this actually. There are times when it's a bit dull. I wanted more of a focus on Ben and Janine's daily life, but the story was primarily interested in plot plot plot. Even then, Ben's personality shines through and I really liked him for most of it.
The villains were pretty lousy. Doc Ock and Aunt May teaming up did not work at all, I'm sorry. I just don't buy that Aunt May would do that (and also I keep forgetting that she no longer knows Peter is Spider-Man, like I could've sworn she found out again at some point).
Queen Goblin is okay though, and I like that they play up the therapy angle here. The whole "Norman's Sins" thing is weird magic mumbo-jumbo, but if you just swap it around and use some basic science experimentation / brainwashing instead, it would work pretty well.
Benching Peter was ballsy and done in a pretty lame way. It doesn't really make sense he'd be in a regular hospital to be honest, like they should've figured out he was Spider-Man from every blood test. But at least they didn't pretend to kill him off or whatever.
Ben ultimately losing his memories... was an interesting idea for an issue or two.
Anyway, Janine is my favorite character for some reason. I've never heard of her before this (I thought she was an MJ clone for a minute). I understand she had a few appearances back in the 90s, probably in the Clone Saga. (I've read most of Spider-Man history, but the 90s Clone Saga is my biggest blind spot. Too many crossovers which I didn't have access to when I read all of ASM as a kid, so I just skipped it rather than stopping. Then as an adult when I did get access to those other books and read them up to the Clone Saga... I just didn't have the patience haha. I'll get back to it one of these days.) But yeah, Janine kicks ass here. I love the internal conflict, the genuine devotion to Ben, the willingness to throw down when shit hits the fan... She's great.
The best though was the single one-shot when Peter fights some weird demon thing in the hospital. It made no sense and came out of nowhere and I'm still not sure why it happened. But it was cool and the art was good and I like horror stuff, so that was neat.
Okay, main event...
ZEB WELLS AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
THE GOOD
I'm not above being able to compliment some things.
I like how he wrote Tombstone. Tombstone's plan to make Spider-Man beat up Rose for him is surprisingly solid and a well-done twist.
I also like Vulture's brief appearance, and how vicious he is. I'm a Vulture stan, and hate it when people treat him like a joke. So it's nice to see someone recognize just how terrifying and ruthless Vulture can actually be.
Hobgoblins... are okay. He kinda neutered Kingsley, but it's fun seeing Ned get brainwashed again.
Um, let's see, there's some other positive...
Black Cat shines throughout. I did not need Peter and Felicia to get back together, but at least I buy it when it happens. Even aside from that though, she does feel like an actual character in both this and Beyond, and not just Peter's ex who writers don't know what to do with.
Uh, the Celestial Gwen bit was interesting... I don't know how the main event is, but for a tie-in this was an interesting idea. The execution was kinda lackluster though. Like Peter sees Gwen and just acts like a good guy, and she approves, and that's it. It's not really surprising and doesn't say anything interesting about the character that isn't obvious. And then "bringing her back" for five seconds... I don't know how I feel about that, kinda weird... I wish Peter had stood up for humanity in general, instead of just showing how he's a good guy. Like, he should've told the Celestial to bugger off, and let it know that it is the villain here. It's weird that he doesn't defend humanity at all. Even his own good actions feel weirdly filtered through the need to impress a Celestial, which is just weird.
Hmm, that wound up being more of a bad than a good...
Oh yeah, there was that Living Brain story for the 60th anniversary. I like the idea of that story. Again, it kinda flopped in execution, coming off more as a parody than anything. Peter's friends definitely should've realized he's Spider-Man. And all the villains are so... odd. It's a parody that isn't funny, even though the idea is decent. Ock doesn't even reference that the Living Brain was once his minion! (Does he remember that?)
Okay, that was more negative as well... Okay.....
THE BAD
I'll start small. In that Tombstone story, there's a scene where Tombstone kidnaps Peter (not Spider-Man), and Peter jokes and makes fun of him, and then Tombstone goes, "You're weird." Tombstone should've figured out he's Spider-Man. I swear, I thought that was about to happen. Peter is not acting like a regular person, and Tombstone's not a goddamn idiot. I was waiting for him to be like, "Oh, it's you. You're Spider-Man. Good to know." That could've been a great moment, Peter's own loud mouth outing his identity, but naa...
Also, though Wells gets Tomby and writes him okay, Wells also dunks on my boy Richard Fisk. Why has no one taken Rose seriously since the 80s? He was such a great character back then. Now he's just another mobster. Has Wells even read those stories? He must have, since he uses Hobgoblin a bunch, and all those things were happening at the same time. Sigh...
Nothing with Norman works at all. I mean, look, I get it, this was a thing Spencer did. And it didn't work then either. And I do respect that they're actually exploring the concept and trying to make something out of it. But it just fundamentally doesn't work. When Ock became Superior, it worked because he still read like Otto. But this Norman... this isn't Norman. This is a new character who so happens to look like Norman and technically has his past. But it's just... not Norman.
While I'm at it... since I did read that Gold Goblin series as well.... Queen Goblin immediately loses all the intrigue she had in Beyond when she goes up against Norman. This just emphasizes the "Sins" thing, which is too woo-woo magical to make any sense or feel real or tangible at all. The stakes are unclear. It just doesn't work.
(On the other hand, the Mary Jane & Black Cat series is the most fun I had during all of this. Like, the plot is nonsense and it's a bit tied into the Paul stuff to really be recommend-able... but the writers there made the most of the shitty stuff they'd been handed and wrote a fun five issues. Good art too. S'ym is great.)
Oh yeah, the art is terrible. I'm not a JRJR hater -- he's hit-or-miss, for the most part. His work on Daredevil in the 80s is brilliant, and his Mephisto redesign is excellent, the only Mephisto that really feels like some otherworldly Eldritch horror. But this run... this is JRJR at his absolute worst. It's not good art.
THE DARK WEB
Okay, so... Like Beyond, I didn't hate this. I didn't like it much either, but it had its moments.
Rek-Rap is great. Just... just everything about Rek-Rap.
I like all the X-Men tie-ins too. In Dark Web, I mean. That one-shot issue shortly before Dark Web where fights Moira or... or whatever that was... That was dog poop nonsense boring shrug. But Dark Web has fun ideas that organically incorporate the X-Men.
I mean, it's really weird that you have a story where Goblin Queen and Queen Goblin are running around at the same time... They, uh, probably should have found a different name for Queen Goblin....... Can she just be the new Red Goblin, since the old one isn't coming back anytime soon? Or a new Menace? This is such a weird naming thing, and letting Peter (or was it Ben?) make a joke about it did not assuage that confusion...
But yeah, teaming up the two most iconic Marvel clones is such a natural move that built for some good drama, even if that drama is built on, um, completely character assassinating Ben...
Okay, here's a positive: the Chasm suit is cool. It's a good suit. I like the suit.
But holy hell Ben (literally?), this is waaaaaay off the deep end. Remember that time in the 60s when Peter lost his memories and teamed up with Doc Ock, but at the end he came to his senses before getting his memories back, because he's inherently a good person and knew this wasn't right? Why can't Ben get that treatment? I mean, okay, I guess he didn't just lose his Uncle Ben memories, but also kept a bunch of traumatic ones... except, apparently, he still forgot about getting killed and resurrected twenty-something times. I thiiiiiink that one's gone too... So he lost his most traumatic memories as well... So he really just has the, uh... mid-memories?
I like when Jean helps Madelyne. That was a good moment. Just gives her memories back, and then Madelyne helps them. Well done. Love it.
So, um, she can totally do that for Ben too right? Like, she's an omega-level mutant and just showed that she has this ability? Why didn't they just do that again? It's not like Peter would've been against it. Really doesn't make sense.... Heck, they could still do this. Ben is right there. Just... just ask Jean to give him his memories back. It's that easy.
Janine still rocks. I love the bit when she almost runs away, but gets recognized, and then comes back more committed to Ben than ever. Janine is an awesome character.
It's funny that there are like five redheaded women in this story, and they're all drawn exactly the same.
THE PAUL...
So...
That was stupid.
This most recent arc literally opens with a note from Nick Lowe, promising that they all really do care about these characters. See that, guys! They do care! Don't mind everything you're about to read, they promised us that they care! Not sus at all...
Making this whole thing a flashback was stupid. Like, there's this whole mystery box storyline... Then when you get to the reveal, it's just 90% an extended flashback, because there isn't really a good way to tie it into present day. It's almost like they should've just done this chronologically to begin with. None of their teases actually made me care. It's all just shallow "hype." (I mean they wanted it to be hype, but I wasn't hyped, so... Like I said, shallow.)
Who the hell is this villain? From the editor's notes, I've definitely read the story arc where he first appeared. I do not remember it. I do not remember him. He is so beyond forgettable that my brain hasn't even stored him as a footnote.
And he isn't fleshed out here either... Most of the time, I was just confused by who he is and what he wants. I'm not even sure how many of these villains there were. Are Rabin and the God the same? Wait, is Rabin the bearded guy? I think they said Rabin was someone else, Paul's dad or whatever... I don't know, I couldn't really follow it. It feels like remembering that forgettable story from Brand New Day era is essential to understanding this one, and I just... I don't. Bring back Freak. Bring back Paper Doll. Those guys I remember, not well but they were fun enough and had cool powers. But this guy? Who the hell is this guy? (And is it racist? It feels racist.)
At least set up the Mayan stuff earlier in the run... Like, with all the mystery box teasing, they didn't actually tease anything. Spider-Man vs Mayan Gods? That's your big story? That feels like something the 60s cartoon would've tackled in its weaker seasons...
Oh, and they Amy Ponded MJ. That was just dumb. This is the kind of random scifi poop that has nothing to do with reality. Good scifi challenges characters and forces them to reveal character in a way that relates back to the real world. Like Into the Spider-Verse uses Peter B Parker to mentor Miles and has both characters grow. The glitching rule is added in so that Miles will have to be the one to stay, so that it can remain fundamentally his story without snapping away the problems by having the more experienced Spider-Men do all the work. Or that Amy Pond story I referenced -- that's an amazing episode of Doctor Who (Season 5, "The Girl Who Waited," strongly recommend), because it challenges the Doctor's readiness to play with the timestream and bring along a string of companions, and it also challenges Amy's readiness to trust the Doctor and assume he always has everything under control. It feels organic to the larger scifi rules in play, and reveals a ton about both characters, with this tragic underpinning that is earned and emotional.
But this? This is just more pettiness. This is just the Spider-Man team not caring about the character (no matter what Nick Lowe says) and wanting to mess things up with MJ... because reasons. It doesn't tell us anything about Peter or MJ that we didn't already know. Heck, they don't even feel in character half the time. Or rather, MJ doesn't really feel like a character at all.
There's this one part where The MJ Who Didn't Wait and Paul get super bulk and Terminator-y during the flashbacks... and then like a page later they're normal sized again. What was that about?
The whole thing is also rushed, not that I wanted them to stretch this out any longer. None of the beats in the MJ flashbacks are fleshed out at all. We're watching a snippets montage of some story we'll never read. We don't get connected to any of the events.
I felt nothing when the kids vanished. I felt nothing when freaking Mary Jane Watson was stabbed to death. And I felt nothing when it was revealed to not be MJ but Kamala. Like, these are characters I traditionally care a lot about... and I just feel nothing and don't care what happens to them in these stories.
That Kamala Khan bait-and-switch? Damn, that was trash writing. I'm not up to date on Kamala's books either (I haven't been since Wilson left -- couldn't get into the following run). But to kill her off in someone else's book??? With none of her supporting cast, none of her villains, heck not even a real Spider-Man villain for that matter... (Again, who the hell is this stupid boring Mayan God guy? What is actually at stake right now? Does he have a personality? Motivation? Is he a racist concept? I'm still not clear on these things.) Kamala "dies" in the dumbest way possible. Well done, Mr. Wells. You aimed to write an incredibly stupid book, and you succeeded.
Heck, Kamala wasn't even a character in this arc. The last time I recall seeing her was during Dark Web. She isn't in ASM 21-25. She just shows up in #26... to die. That's so stupid. This character deserves more than that.
Also, MJ deserves more than this.
Peter deserves more than this.
Heck, even that Mayan guy deserves more than this. At least give him a personality.
IN CONCLUSION...
If any of you actually read all this... uh, I'm sorry? I just needed to vent and mark down some thoughts. Curious on other people's thoughts. I mean, I think I know most of them (I don't live under a rock and did have some spoilers going into all this).
Can we please just retcon all this already? Just do some time travel shenanigans and pull in MJ from before all of this. It worked for Doctor Who.

Trip Report- 13 days Tokyo/Kyoto/Hakone/Nagoya (Ghibli Park) /Hiroshima with a 2 year-old toddler. (plus day-trips to Nara and Osaka)
I love reading other peoples' trip reports and thought it might be useful to share my experiences travelling with my wife and toddler in Japan. We used Shinkasens for most of our travel between cities but did rent a car in the middle so that we could drive to a rural Onsen and then to Shirakawa-Go from Nagoya. (We also briefly rented a car to visit 3 plaaces around Hakone, too).
First of all, traveling with a toddler in japan is great. Our kid loves trains and busses and got tons of attention and shouts of "KAWAI!!" from friendly people everywhere we went. She even got a lullaby sung to her by a Japanese grandmother as she dozed on a city bus in Kyoto. She never had to pay for any bus fares or train fares. (technically she was a "lap baby" on the Shinkansens).
We read a book of etiquette before we went and it was very useful to know. I am sure most of these tips are stickied elsewhere , but things like "don't point with one finger, always grasp cups with both hands, don't wipe your face/mouth with the hand-cloth, don't talk loudly in restaurants or on trains, keep yen bills neat and flat and use the trays provided when paying for things," etc, were good to know before we went. We brought and carried a "point-and-say" translation book but only used it once; generally Google Translate worked great for images of menus and signs. (and many restaurants have English versions of menus, or use digital menus on iPad that can switch to English. ) Google maps handled most of our navigation needs without issues too, both via train and car. We parked the stroller outside most restaurants or folded it and brought it just inside the door if the weather was bad.
Prep work --
The only major prep work we did before leaving was to buy our JR pass and alert our banks to the dates that we would be in Japan so that our credit and debit cards would work. We had no problems getting cash from the ATM machines at 7-11 or at the Airport. We reserved all hotels/AirBnB/Onsen/Car Rentals beforehand. Also bought SkyTree tickets before departing. We stayed up until 4am to get a ticket to Ghibli's Grand Warehouse -- fortunately only one ticket was needed since our child was under 4 and my wife wasn't interested. We rented a mobile hotspot device from Sakura Mobile before leaving America and it was waiting for us at our first hotel in Tokyo. We dropped the hotspot and charger in a mailbox in a pre-paid envelope before leaving Kyoto.
Major tips -- no need to pack lots of snacks or water each day , since vending machines and 7-11 stores and similar are ubiquitous. Do pack paper towels/ Napkins and extra plastic bags for carrying wet diapers and trash, as public trash cans are almost non-existant. (and when they do exist, they are often just for aluminum and PET plastic bottles) Throw away trash where you bought it, (for things like satay skewers) or bring it home to your hotel. The "pack-it-out" mindset takes a little getting used to, but the results -- a society seemingly without litter-- are superb. Having a lightweight , easily foldable stroller made this trip much easier. Our child often slept in the stroller, and being able to quickly collapse and carry it was key to getting up and down the many sets of stairs in the train stations. It also occasionally doubled as a luggage cart for us. Packing light is key; we picked hotels and AirBnBs that had laundry options to allow us to carry a minimum of stuff. (and no need to bring laundry soap; the washing machines dispense it automatically) My wife wished she had a Japanese-style suitcase with 4 roller-wheels, but I think we did fine with our backpacks , etc.
In general, we didn't have much trouble finding things for my daughter to eat; she loves noodles and dumplings, and even got really into red snapper sushi one night. (basically she loves anything she can dip in soy sauce). Chicken Karage was usually an easy thing to find and feed to her, as were the egg salad Sandos, fresh fruit, and various rice balls from 7-11. Oddly, she also really loved the "pickle-on-a-stick" things that were pretty common in outdoor markets. (I think we got them in both Kyoto and Osaka)
Flights - we flew JAL to from LAX to Narita outbound, and returned on JAL (operated by AA) from Hiroshima to Haneda to LAX. The outbound flight was great; the JAL service was impeccable and they gave my child a model airplane which kept her occupied for hours. We gate-checked our folding stroller on the outbound flight -- the gate clerk put into a plastic bag for us just before departure,
The return flight (operated by American Airlines ) was a step down, but still fine. Transferring planes at Haneda for the return was a little more of a hassle than we had expected becuase you have to exit one terminal, walk a while, exit the building and then get on a free bus, and then go back through security at another terminal. On the plus side, the Haneda international terminal has a padded play area that my daughter liked near the duty free shops. Becuase our return journey was two flights, gate-checking the stroller was not possible, but instead, after measuring its size, we were able to keep it as a carry-on for both legs. (had it been larger, JAL said they would have met us at Haneda with an airport loaner stroller, something we saw other parents using in Hiroshinma and Haneda)
Highlights from each city (focusing on things that my child loved)
Tokyo -- our first night in Japan was a little disorienting: the Tokyo metro station is like a gigantic multi-layer mall-labryinth, and since none of the maps seem to show the "big picture" finding our way to the correct exit lugging luggage was a bit of a challenge the first time . We went back down that night for our fist meal, and by the next day we were practically experts, and were even able to find our way to Ramen Street (on level B1) for lunch and --after waiting in line for about 20 minutes-- slurp some great noodles.
Our first morning we wanted to visit the imperial Palace Gardens, but discovered it is closed on Mondays. Stil, just seeing its moat and stone walls was impressive. We walked to the Children's Science and Technology Museum near Budokan, and our duaghter loved operating cranes and turning cranks of giant Rube-Goldberg machines. (some with bowling-ball sized steel balls moving around). Most of the exhibits were in Japanese, but the fact that this wasn't a common tourist destination made it interesting to visit. On the way home for naps we ate at a random underground food court under an office building and learned how to order a food ticket from a machine for eating at a restaraunt. (a key skill!)
We next headed up to the Owl Cafe in Akihabara, mostly as an excuse to have a visit to Akhiabara, and found it was closed, but seeing the electronics stores and nightlife of Akhihabara was fun. As you might expect, my daughter loved getting Gacha Balls from vending machines (both in Akihabara and everywhere else )
Our second day we spent the morning hunting for the legendary "Elephant Playground" (worth the hunt!) and then went to the nearby Tokyo Childrens' Toy Museum. This was a fantastic combo, and I would recommend anyone with young kids in Tokyo do both. From there we walked to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, which was a wonderful oaisis, full of picknicking families and couples. We explored the tropical greenhouse and then had a well-needed rest under a tree near a tea-house in the traditial japanese garden section Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden also was conveniently close to the Shinjuku rail station, which was imporant because we had Sky-Tree tickets that evening, and we headed there directly. We didn't have time to do any shopping or visit the two museums recommended to us near the skytree (Tobacco and Salt and the Tobu rail museum) But we did have what I consider my favorite meal of the trip: beers and gyoza and molten-lava hot takoyaki at a tiny( 6- seat) izakaya a few minutes south of the Skytree. (i'd recommend it by name but it was completely in japanasese and I am not sure I can now accurately ID it)

The third day we visted the Tusikiji outer fish market -- we got there early and and it was quickly full of tourists and good food. (many different kinds of grilled things on sticks, as well as raw oysters, etc) I was amazed that the public bathrooms there were sparkling clean -- as they were throughout almost the entire trip. My daughter loved getting an ice-cream drink at John Lennon's favorite coffiee shop (Yonemoto). On the way back thorugh Ginza we bought an enormous fig wrapped like the crown jewels from one of Japnan's famous fruit-gift stores. It cost about $9, but was absoulutely delicious. (it was crazy to see $200 watermelons and $170 muskmellons in the same store) 

We also took this time in Ginza to do one of the things on my bucket list -- buy an overpriced gift fruit from a fancy Japanese store. We bought the second cheapest thing in there - a single giant fig, and I think it cost about $9. (totally worth it!) . it was just fun to ogle $80 spherical watermelons, and other beautiful, but incredibly expensive fruit.
Later that afternoon visited/saw Shibuya crossing, ate decent and very inexpensive sushi at a 3rd floor conveyor-belt restaurant, and went to Harjuku. (not in that order) Harajuku was chaotic fun, but equally fun was the long peaceful forest walk to visit the Meji Ginku shrine that starts just outside Harjuki station . By now we were experts at tossing coins, bowing, clapping, and praying in the appropriate cycle. (something the 2 year old seemed to quite enjoy). We also knew from our guidebook that we were supposed to walk only on the sides of the path at Meji Ginku -- the middle is reserved for the Gods.
NAGOYA/GHIBLI - We took a direct bus from Nagoya station (cash accepted, Pasmo Cards also accepted) out to the sprawling expo grounds that surround the Ghibli exhibits. Our 2.5 year old loved Studio Ghibli Parks Gand Warehouse, particularly the miniature town where she could run around and pretend to drive a train and serve beer at a drafthouse. There was a furry Catbus to sit on, (of course) as well as another padded Catbus to jump around on for a few minutes with shoes off. Totoro is the only Ghibli character she knows well, and she loved finding hidden Totoros and (and a giant bar-tending one) around the Warehouse.
Arguably, Ghibli park was a little disappointing for us two adults , becuase it was pouring rain when we visited making the long walks between areas less than fun. And despite having moved heaven and earth to get a timed ticket, there still were long lines (~40 min) for areas inside the "Grand Warehouse." It was interesting for me to see the sketches and reference photos a used to make each cell of Ghibli animation realisitic ... but it was annoying and crazy that most areas of the warehouse totally forbad taking photographs. Much of the rest of the Grand Warehouse was just lines for people to take selfies in front of recreated scenes from the movies for posting on social media.
We had watched or re-watched all the Ghibli movies prior to our trip, so we were well prepared, but overall I would say that if you can't get tickets to go to the Grand Warehouse, don't feel bad. (There are many many more magical and wonderful things everywhere else in Japan, and your 2 -year-old will love them just as much. )
HAKONE/SHIRAKAWA-GO/ HIDA (Onsen)
We took a Shinkasen south from Tokyo to Hakone, and spent a day there with a family friend who showed us an ancient tea-house along the old imperial road, a famous Shinto shrine, a deliicious meal, and of course, Mount Hakone with its black eggs, sulfurous fumes, and melty black ice cream. The toddler loved the eggs and the ice cream, of course! For me, sitting and eating tea and mochi in the deep forest along the royal road was like being transported back into a historical Kurosawa film.
If you visit Hakone, I would encourage you to get into the woods and do some hiking. It's a gorgeous area. Apparently the japanese love to drink and tour Lake Ashi on a pair of pirate ships. which added a comic aspect to our visit to the much-photographed Hakone Shrine's Tori gate.
We knew we wanted to visit the truly rural areas of Honshu, so we reserved a night at a remote Onsen near Shirakawa-Go. The drive from Nagoya was stunningly beautiful, traffic was light, and because we had rented a toll transponder along with the rental car, we could just breeze through the toll-booths (which are located at the off-ramps) . Seeing the untouched mountains coexisting with sleek new road tunnels and breathtaking shining bridges made me realize how decrepit American infrastructure has become.
IT was a bit stressful to drive on the left hand side of the road, but conversely, It was great to be able to pull over at will. For example, we could stop at at a small town outside of Nagoya for a delicious prix fixe breakfast at "cafe Pierrot" and again later to see and visit a beautiful riverside Shinto shrine along the road. The car gave us the freedom to and be able to just stop and explore and let our child play in the shallow water surrounded by green hills. Driving in the rural areas wasn't too bad, and doing so let us see a whole other world that we would have missed had we stuck to the trains. For example, we visited a delightful outdoor morning market in the village of Miyagawa and bought fresh produce and some delightful snacks (including fish-shaped custard-filled mini-donuts) from the vendors followed by an impromptu picnic along the riverbank.
On this portion of the trip we also got to experience the Japan's wonderful rest-stop cuisine -- you use a ticket machine to select some items, hand them to a chef behind the counter, and in a few minutes your number is called . We had some delicious Japanese pizza (shaped like a elongated, puffy taco ) fragrant beef curry, and a "Miso Katsu" dish too.
Later we would stop at another rest stop and discover that it had an absolutely epic set of slides and tunnels built into the hillside. You borrow a plastic sled and then slide about 150 feet down a green carpet. It was hearwarming to see how kind and welcoming the japanese children were to our daughter, helping her to slide and showing her how to play and explore the tunnels. Arguably this was my child's favorite part of the entire trip.
Shirakawa Go was great fun for the whole family -- it was definately touristy, but it was great to be able to stroll and relax and learn about Japan's past. (Parking closes at 5pm, though!) We had only a few hours there but I think we would have enjoyed an entire day of strolling and snacking and learning. Interestingly all the parking attendents there seem to be senior citizens.
Our Ondsen was in a small farming comunity outside Hida, surrounded by orchards, mountains, and rice paddies. We were the only non-japanese that we saw there, and it was a little challenging to keep our toddler ccorralled during the formal meals (served in a common area, not in our rooms). As expected, the indoor slippers provided were a bit small for my size-11 feet, but we had a great time in a beautiful, secluded place.
Staying overnight got us a ticket to also visit the large and well-maintained municipal baths just up the road. (each side of which had about 7 pools of various temperatures and medicinal properties) There was a wonderful hiking trail that looped through the deep forest around the town. One of my biggest regrets of the trip is that we did not have more time to hike and explore these lush, pristine mountain woods -- I think I enjoyed our hikes here as much as I did the onsen baths.
The driving portion of our trip ended on the western coast of Honshu, at Kanazawa, but we didn't see much of that city other than a gas station and the rental car return before taking the "thunderbird" train down to Kyoto. (not quite as fast as some shinkasen, but very comfortable).
KYOTO and day-trips:
We had three delightful days in Kyoto, along including day trips by rail to Osaka (to see the market, eat okinomiyaki, and climb Osaka Castle) and Nara (to walk aound and feed the deer in the park and then the koi at a a beautiful botanical garden, stroll through another temple, and to eat the best Udon noodles of the trip while siting outdoors in the forest. In Nara, we also stumbled upon a wonderful Beatles-only vintage record shop called "B-Sels" on an upper floor just across from Nara station, and listened to a street performance of Shamisen music at the station itself. Nara, like Shirakawa-Go, was full of busloads of tourists, but that didn't make it any less of a great experience for us.
Kyoto itself was wonderful to explore on foot -- I won't go into exhaustive detail, but our child loved walking and being pushed in the stroller to various Temples and loved the view from Kyoto tower. (and the Gatcha ball souvenir tower even more!) . She liked the path through the bamboo forest (crowded with tourists) and loved "hiking" through the beautiful and less crowded gardens of Tenryu-Ji temple -- part of which has remained unchanged since the 14th century. We skipped the monkey park.
In Kyoto proper, we walked through Chion-In Buddhist temple , took our shoes off and bagged them, and observed a ceremony -- it was interesting to see how similar it was to ceremonies in America, with the same incense, syllable recitation, and wood-block time-keeping interspersed with bowl-gong ringing .... but on a much grander scale. The size of the wooden buildings is epic, rivaling the stone cathedrals of Europe. Because of the large numbers of steps to get from the massive Sanmon gate to the main building of the shrine, my wife and I took turns exploring and let the toddler play along the paths of the temple's small tea-garden next door.
Hiroshima-
Finally, we spent the last two days of our trip in Hiroshima. It was shocking and surreal to get off the train underground and suddenly be hit with an overwhelming smell of burning -- there was construction work all around Hiroshima station and I don't know if it was from digging pylons down into subterranean ashes, or just from some other more modern aspect of the construction As someone whose worldview was shaped by reading Barefoot Gen as a child, visiting Hiroshima was an important and somber part of our trip.
It was interesting to see that the bulk of the visitors to the Peace Museum visitors seemed to be Japanese school groups. Of course, most of the photos and exhibits museum went "over the head" of our 2/yo child. (she wasn't frightened, just not interested). She did enjoy ringing the peace Bell outside and seeing the collections of paper cranes. We bought books to help share the experience with her again once she is older.
In any event, Hiroshima is a charming city showing no outward signs of being apocalyptically devastated (except at the Peace Memorial Dome) and there is an excellent restaurant district just around the corner from the main train station, with many small restaurants that are open late.
The people and proprietors of Hiroshima seemed particularly kind to us; it's more relaxed there than any of the other cities we viisted. Our chid loved was the "Children's 5-day Science Museum" about a quater mile away from Peace Park that has a lot of hands-on exhibits and two stories of climbing tunnels. We did not do the planetarium there, as it is in japanese-language only and we had limited time.
For us, the highlight of our time in Hiroshima was taking the long ferry to Miyajima directly from Peace Park and then wandering around the narrow streets of Miyajima in the afternoon and evening. It was great to see the oyster beds being worked from the ferry and then later dine on delicious grilled and fried Miyajima oysters.
Our child loved the ferry rides and wandering around Miyajima (there are deer there too) but she also slept for much of our time on the island. The return ferry was part of the JR rail network and so we could use our JR passes for that. (its a short, straighter route).
All in all, Japan was very kid friendly, as long as you can quickly and easily fold up your stroller, and we loved our time in every city we visited. (and could have easily spent much more time in any of them).
Other Thoughts: We bought the Japan Rail Pass, but probably didn't save much money by doing so; My wife estimates that we about broke even with the number of shinkansen, trains, and ferry-rides we used. It was a nice security blanket, though, to know that if we missed a train it wouldn't cost us anything. (but we never missed any trains) . For non JR-line trains, we used a pair of "PASMO" cards. Pasmo cards can also be used at other random retail places as a stored-cash card. When you go through the gates, you must look for ones that say "IC" if you are using a Pasmo card and tap against the NFC pad with it. Using Pasmo is nice because the card is durable (unlike the paper JR Pass) and you can load up enough money for multiple trips on the card.
We use T-mobile, and our plan included 5 GB of "high speed data" while in japan but we weren't sure we would have good service for our rural drive, so we gout a WiFi hotspot from Sakura Mobile. This worked fine -- and its speeds was always faster than T-Mobile's coverage when tested. The hotspot generally would last about 20 hours on one charge. But honestly T-Mobile's Japan coverage was probably good enough that the hotspot was an unnecessary expense; we often used it instead of the hotspot and only came close to the 5GB limit on our last day. If I were on a tighter budget, a shorter trip, or knew I wouldn't be in remote areas, I would skip the Hotspot and just use T-mobile.
TLDR: Tokyo Toy Museum is fantastic for little ones. Ghibli Park (Grand Warehouse) is fine, but our kid probably had just as much fun on many other Japanese playgrounds. If you do choose to drive, don't miss the Japanese rest stops which can be fantastic with fresh food and jungle gyms and slides. Our kid may remember little from the trip except the toys she took home from GATCHA balls, but we have a lifetime of memories gained. Don't miss the Udon in Nara at "Mizuya Chaya", just outside the beautiful Manyo Botanical Gardens.
links:
ELEPHANT PLAYGROUND:
https://www.thetokyochapter.com/tokyos-retro-playgrounds/
RAMEN STREET:
https://tokyocheapo.com/food-and-drink/ramen/tokyo-ramen-street/
Miyagawa Morning Market:
https://www.japan.travel/en/spot/1255/
Udon at Mizuya Chaya in Nara:
https://www.visitnara.jp/venues/D01057/

I know WG has pretty much discarded any concern with actual history but why the hell don't we have the Shigure with a Captain Tameichi Hara yet? Luckiest ship in the IJN with the most famous torpedo tactics captain ever.
While we're on the subject of history it would be cool to get a line of "Battle Star Premiums"...ships with lots of history and commendation. USS San Francisco and USS Minneapolis come to mind. So many famous ships have just been ignored in order to push fantasy paper junk. Even the biggest battles of the war are mere footnotes with a crappy little mission sets and lame prizes. But WARHAMMER and POPEYE...now thats pushed to the front.

Part 1
Part 2
We were driving rapidly down Main Street as a horrible creature from another dimension followed behind us, its long strides keeping pace and making the car shake with each step it took. The engine roared as we sped away from the butcher shop. Randy was sitting in the seat next to me and it took me a minute to realize he was eating something.
It was a bucket of KFC.
"Seriously!? How can you be hungry at a time like this?? We're about to die, Randy!"
"We got bigger problems than that right now," he said, patting down his pockets with greasy fingers and leaving stains as he searched for something. "We're all out of booze! We need to make a pit stop as soon as you get a chance."
Normally this would be an absurd statement. But unfortunately the lack of alcohol was a bit of an issue, since there were plenty more monsters ready to come through into our world, and the only thing keeping them out was our ability to stay intoxicated so we didn’t see them. I had kept my percentage down below the legal driving limit, but I was starting to feel like that wasn't cutting it anymore.
"You need to start drinking more," Randy explained. "You're the one who saw it first, remember? If anything, this is kinda your fault."
I gripped the steering wheel with white knuckled rage and continued driving.
Regardless of what he said, I want to make sure it's on the record that this was all Randy's fault. He had admitted to making at least one wish using a cursed magic monkey paw - and we all know how that usually plays out.
I saw a convenience store and immediately slammed on the brakes. Reaching over Randy, I threw open his door and kicked him out. It was easy since he wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was already beginning to fall asleep.
"What the fuck, dude?" He yelled as I pulled away.
"Get us more booze! I'm gonna circle the block," I shouted at him out the window, picking up speed.
Then I took out my gun and aimed at the monster which was getting closer by the second. I took three shots at it over my shoulder and missed two of them. But the third caught it squarely in the neck and it began to howl a guttural cry, dripping black blood all over the street from its fresh wound. It slowed down momentarily, but then picked up its pace again, coming after me with renewed rage.
My goal had been accomplished, though. I’d been trying to keep it away from Randy, since he was on foot and more vulnerable. We would need to abandon the car, though, I realized. If I was going to start drinking more I wouldn’t be able to drive safely. As bad as things were getting, I wasn’t about to start breaking the law - especially that particular one. I’d seen enough death and destruction caused by drunk drivers over my years on the force. I wasn’t going to go down that road.
I looked back to see the creature still gaining on me.
My mind was racing trying to think of a way to evade it, to outwit it. I needed to do something to kill it. But what?
Suddenly my cell phone was ringing. I picked it up and looked at the caller ID. It was Jay, the delivery driver. He was in the car ahead of me and I had kind of forgotten he was there.
“Listen,” he said quickly. “I got a plan. We need to lure that thing to the swamp. Just follow me and keep up the pace.”
“It’s a cop car,” I said dryly. “I’m pretty sure I can keep up with your piece of shit-”
My words were cut short as the line went dead and the car ahead of me began to accelerate rapidly. I floored it but found the guy was still gaining distance between the two of us.
Whatever he had under the hood was making that little car go a lot faster than I would have thought possible.
My phone dinged and I looked down to see a text from Jay. It was an eggplant with a water spray emoji.
This fucking town…
*
We reached the edge of the city limits of Hollow’s End to find a parking lot which sloped at an unnatural angle downwards. At the bottom of this strange gravel lot was a murky-looking swamp full of brackish green water. A small copse of trees stood to one side near the shore.
No other cars were parked there which was good, since the creature was still close behind us.
I was following Jay as closely as I could and imitating his car’s movements, although my vehicle was sluggish and clumsy by comparison. He was still driving at top speed, and I figured it was important that I keep up with him for whatever he planned to do.
When we reached the edge of the water, near that little grouping of trees, he hit the brakes and swerved to the right. His tires stayed on the gravel, but just barely. The entire parking lot was sloped so severely towards the water that the force of gravity was insisting on taking us into the swamp.
Realizing that my bigger vehicle wouldn’t make the turn in time, I hit the brakes early and tried to slow down, knowing that otherwise I would crash right into a tree or go into the water trying to make the move.
As soon as I slowed down I could hear the creature’s breath and its movements just behind the car. I avoided the temptation to look back, since I knew it would be my death if I did. Instead, I yanked hard on the wheel and turned it to the right, skidding to a stop on the grass, my fender just inches away from a large pine tree.
The creature’s brakes were not quite as good as mine, since it was desperate to kill me and hadn’t really slowed down. Instead, it went skidding into the green water, coated with algae and looking much thicker than was normal. It was like a giant bowl of pea soup. The creature was thrashing around, looking as if it were in pain, and then I noticed the tendrils of swamp water moving on its skin, pulling it in deeper, like an enormous squid wrestling with a shark.
My phone rang again and I picked it up, my eyes still focused on the creature trying to get out of the swamp. It looked like it would not be able to escape from whatever was holding it there, and I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn’t gone in with that wild last minute maneuver.
Then it was as if an enormous hand reached up from below and pulled the creature under. Despite the fact that there were only dark empty sockets where eyes should have been, I could have sworn I saw them widen as it was dragged under, and then was gone.
“Problem solved,” Jay said when I answered the phone. “You can thank me later. And we’ll definitely owe Swampy a favor. Now let’s get back into town and grab Randy. Maybe the three of us can figure out a solution to this whole mess.”
*
I managed to convince Jay to let me ride shotgun in his car, telling him that mine was having engine trouble. This was partly as a ploy to make him our designated driver, but also to cover for the fact that he was clearly the superior driver of a far better automobile than my cruiser. And who knew when we’d have to outrun one of those monsters again?
After applying copious amounts of duct tape to all of the mirrors on the vehicle, we were off, heading back towards the convenience store where I’d left Randy.
We found him out front with a large paper bag full of bottles in his arms, sleeping in the grassy ditch near the road. There were several children taking turns at poking him with a stick.
“Okay, beat it, kids!” I yelled at them as we approached.
The children ran off and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a few of them looked very odd. One had a furry face and ears like a dog, while another had red eyes, and yet another was running on all fours. They scattered in every direction, making it difficult to pinpoint any other discrepancies.
“What’s the deal with this town?” I muttered to nobody in particular.
“How much time do you have?” Jay asked, laughing. “This place is weirder than you could possibly imagine. There’s a lot of history here. Sorry to say, you didn’t really know what you were getting into when you moved to this place.”
“Can you give me a quick summary?” I asked, kicking Randy gently in the ribs. He snored and swatted the air like an annoyed cat, then rolled over on his other side. His right leg began to pump up and down as if he were chasing a rabbit in his dreams.
“I’m not really at liberty to discuss all of it. People in Hollow’s End prefer to keep their secrets to themselves. But if you get to know them, you’ll find most folks are nice enough. As long as you live here, anyways. Tourists do tend to occasionally go missing if they stay out past sunrise. And if you meet anyone wearing a hooded robe your best bet is to avoid them. Oh, and there’s this guy named Frank who-”
Randy sat bolt upright, screaming at the top of his lungs, clutching the bag of liquor bottles so tightly against his chest that I thought they would shatter.
“It’s okay, man,” I said, leaning down to pat his shoulder in what I hoped was a comforting gesture. “It was just a nightmare.”
He was breathing heavily for a few moments and didn’t respond. But then finally he unscrewed the cap of one of the liquor bottles and took a long gulp.
“Right. A nightmare. That’s all it was.”
He didn’t seem entirely convinced.
“Alright, what’s the plan, guys?” Jay asked. “I’m happy to help out if you need me to.”
I took one of the liquor bottles from Randy and took a long drink from it. After wiping my mouth, I screwed the cap back on and stuffed the bottle in my pocket. Thinking hard about the next lead to follow up on, I came up short. We didn’t really have anything.
“Do you know anyone who would be interested in buying a monkey paw?” I asked. “Is there anyone in town dumb enough or reckless enough to take ownership of it? Because I feel like that fucking thing is at the center of all of this. It’s like a murder investigation - if we can find the weapon used to commit the crime, we might be able to solve it.”
Jay looked at me and Randy looked at the ground between his legs.
“I know just the guy,” Jay answered. “You know how I was telling you to stay away from Frank? Well, we might need to disregard that advice, just temporarily.”
*
The three of us pulled up outside a house a short while later, now with Jay behind the wheel, chauffeuring us around town.
We went up to the front door and he continued explaining the protocol for how to deal with this Frank individual.
“Remember, whatever you do, don’t stare. And don’t go inside his house - whatever he wants to tell us he can tell us outside. People who go in there are usually tourists, and they’re never, ever seen again. That’s like guaranteed death just stepping into that place.”
I tried not to think about how many rules I was breaking, how many vows in my oath as a Sheriff were completely null and void now.
“You know I’m a police officer, right? Most people don’t speak so freely about the kidnapping and murder of tourists.”
Randy slapped my arm.
“Come on, man. Just when we’re starting to think you’re cool, you go and say something like that. Killing tourists is a proud tradition in Hollow’s End. If you don’t like it then you shouldn’t have moved here.”
I didn’t have time to debate the subject anymore, as Jay was now knocking on the front door of the house.
The door swung open on the first knock, as if it had been slightly ajar.
“Hello,” Jay called into the darkness. “Frank? Are you there? I need to talk to you about something.”
He stuck his head into the dark gap afforded by the open door. For a moment I had a horrible mental image of it slamming shut on his neck, squeezing and choking him as blood poured from wounds created by the pressure of sharp wood on his flesh.
But instead, something worse happened.
Jay let out a gasp and then disappeared through the gap. As if he had been picked up by his hair and was dragged inside by a hungry bear.
My heart was pounding fast as I realized I was going to have to ignore all of Jay's warnings if I was going to save him and the town. Despite the dangers, we were going to have to go inside after all.
YT
TCC

I am 17 and I have to write a long paper about a subject I'm interested in as an exam. In this essay I have to answer a few questions I came up with "myself". My questions are related to the ethics, authority and privacy concerning BCI's and prosthetics and how we are going to implement it in our future.
Could anyone recommend me some articles that go about this subject and maybe some other questions concerning prosthetics and BCI's.
Would it also be cool if 3d printed basic prosthetics and tried to code them?

We got married on June 2nd in Stowe, VT - a bit of a destination wedding in a ski resort town so the budget reflects that.
Venue - The Barn at Smuggler's Notch $18,700. This included the venue and alcohol. They provide several packages and as we are not heavy drinkers, had an open bar. They proprietors also act as day-of coordinators and are great people.
Catering - SugarSnap $16,000 which was a family style 3-course dinner with a grazing table for the cocktail hour, a dessert buffet, and late night snack table. Food was all delicious and the guest couldn't speak highly enough of it.
Band - Silver Arrow $8,060 for an 8-piece band during the reception. We had 3 piece for the ceremony and 2 for the cocktail hour. They kept it very lively and also provided audio for the ceremony. We did have to pay for band lodging which was another $900.
Rentals - VT Tent Co $3900 which covered all linens, glass ware, flatware, and silverware. Also chairs for the ceremony.
Paper items (menu, programs, etc.) - $650 by a local vendor.
Floral - Tipsy Tulip $12,900 which gave us flowers for the arbor, bridal bouquet, table arrangements, and chandeliers. They were phenomenal.
Photographer & Videographer - Andy Madea Photo $11,250 which got us all-day photography (9 AM To 11 PM) with 2 people, and 4 hours of video (5 to 9 PM) also with 2 people. Andy was a great resource as well for best practices, poses, etc.
Shuttle busses - Fleet Transportation, LLC $3,600 for 2x 14 passengers vans and 1x 32 passenger bus. Heard no complaints. Also allowed us to bring drinks for passengers.
Hair & Makeup - Heather Garrow $1,830 which included the trial. Didn't have a bridal party so some friends and family were invited to participate instead.
Save the Dates & Website - Zola $600 no real complaints, STDs looked great and the functionality of the website was nice, especially with the registry feature.
Audio Guest Book - After the Tone $375 we're not 100% sure if this was a success yet. We'll see.
Rehearsal Dinner & Welcome Party - The Lodge at Spruce Peak $11,500 food was delicious and the hospitality was great. The pavilion we used was very large and comfortable both inside and out. Grazing table was very good, and solid options for drinks.
Welcome gifts - Local Chocolatier $1,000 which included custom molding fee with a welcome message and a set of truffles for each guest. These were delicious and we had leftovers to share amongst some of the staff at the lodge and venue.
Miscellaneous items - about another $4000 or so for our lodging, spa services, food, etc.
It's definitely a lot, but we also got what we paid for. It was two days of great fun, quality time, unmatched service, and partying. We stayed at the Lodge at Spruce Peak and I can't speak highly enough about their staff, amenities, service, quality, or rooms.
The Barn at Smuggler's Notch is a first-rate venue what provides exceptional service, an amazing experience, awesome view, and an outstanding facility. It is a purpose built venue with a heating/cooling built in, a full service bridal suite with full bathroom, and an on-site chef's kitchen so the food is freshly prepared.
Feel free to ask any further questions!

Hey all,
I filed on my own for chapter 7 bankruptcy last week. I know everyone said to get a lawyer but that wasn’t possible for me. I don’t have any big assets like a house and literally no money. They checked that I had all of the papers and gave me a confirmation paper with my case number and told me I’d receive mail about a court date. Cool. Well I checked my email today and see something was closed on my credit so I checked my credit and the bankruptcy was already added to my credit, all collections removed and balances for delinquent accounts went to 0. I’m not complaining but I’m confused because I thought your debts had to be discharged before this all happens? What if they dismiss my case and everything has been removed? Please don’t be rude, my situation is weird. I first got into bad debt after taking out personal loans to escape an abusive relationship in 2020. It’s been hard to climb up since. I’m in a new relationship and pregnant now so I wanted to try and fix this before my baby is born. I don’t work, only my husband does and he can’t pay off my debts. Thank you for any advice.

There has been a lot of discussion about Cornel West because of his announced campaign. With a wide variety of reactions. But one reaction I've noted is people who do know how stupid splitting the vote is, but say that he is championing progressive causes or that he is very progressive.
Now he acts Progressive. He says certain buzzwords. But is he? Or is he really just a crank who has gone right?
Splitting the Vote for Trump
This campaign is nothing new for Cornel West. From his own mouth

Brother Bernie and Brother Trump are authentic human beings in stark contrast to their donor-driven opponents.

In the 2016 campaign, he was praising Trump over Clinton.And then endorsed Jill Stein. You don't have to like Clinton, to know how high the stakes were. And of course, as we now all know the stakes were high. 3 Supreme Court Justices, hundreds of lower federal judges, endemic corruption, criminalisation of immigrants, rise in hate crimes, and Trump utterly botching the crisis that happened under his watch, Covid killing over a million Americans.
But lots of people made that mistake as well. However, he is doing it all over again, after all this shit happened.
And Now Trump is even worse. He is explicitly campaigning against democracy itself because of his grudge about losing, he has made a campaign promise to invade Mexico, Ukraine will almost certainly get cut off reviving the Russian invasion and he explicitly wants to purge the Federal government of all non-loyalists, including bureaucratic roles. Cornel West has no hope of winning, all he is doing is taking away Democratic votes.
DeSantis, Chris Rufo and Cornel West
However, Cornel West doesn't just have an unfortunate past of praising Donald Trump. He also has a current history of praising Ron DeSantis and working with evangelical right-wingers, and their education causes.
Recently he wrote an Op-ed
DeSantis’s Revolutionary Defense of the Classics

By Cornel West and Jeremy Wayne Tate
Gov. Ron DeSantis just gave a welcome boost to the classical-education movement. He signed legislation allowing high-school students to qualify for Bright Futures scholarships, a state fund for college education, by submitting scores from the Classic Learning Test instead of the SAT alone.
This move will likely be portrayed, wrongly, as partisan and conservative. But the greatest works of civilization have always been about spurring—not preventing—radical change. They teach us about the revolutionary ideas of the past and help us better understand the present. The richest ideas of what it means to be human are those that have stood the test of time.
Many of the seminal works of literature, history, philosophy, science and theology were revolutionary in their respective ages. Turn the pages of Galileo Galilei’s “Two New Sciences” and you’ll experience the alteration of humanity’s view of itself in relation to the heavens. By disproving the then-common belief that the planets revolved around the Earth rather than the sun, Galileo laid the foundation for modern science. Isaac Newton, swept aside what remained of the Old World’s scientific superstitions—only to find himself upstaged two centuries later by Albert Einstein’s “Relativity.”
Like revolutionary ideas today, the ideas of yesterday were provocative and, in many cases, much more consequential. Galileo was put on trial because he upset the status quo. In the 13th century, Bishop Stephen Tempier of Paris condemned key works of theologian Thomas Aquinas for being too radical. Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn and civil-rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. were imprisoned for their views. In colonial America, James Madison and his co-authors feared printing their names on the Federalist Papers, so they hid under aliases. Even the most mild-mannered of philosophers stirred trouble for thinking against the grain. Plato watched his great teacher Socrates put to death for his teachings.
Revolutionary figures of the past give us insight into the present and allow for reflection on the consequences of their choices. Julius Caesar, one of antiquity’s most recognizable leaders, teaches us the cost of revolution through his histories. By crossing into Rome with his armies, he ended the republic and created the Roman Empire, a crime for which he paid with his life. But in his firsthand descriptions of the often-brutal tactics he employed to achieve political transformation, he left behind deep insight. Caesar’s direct and simple prose conveys the reality of going to war—all without reference to contemporary conflicts.
That’s one of the virtues of the classics: They are a means of considering what is true without invoking the blind partisanship that encourages thoughtless action. There is nothing we need more today than the cultivation of reason and understanding.
That’s why Mr. DeSantis’s support of classic education has universal merit that transcends partisanship. Education based on values, logic and discipline isn’t Republican—it’s timeless.
Mr. West holds a chair at Union Theological Seminary and serves on the board of academic advisers of the Classic Learning Test. Mr. Tate is founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test.

In this article, he praises DeSantis for introducing the Classic Learning Test (CLT) to Florida schools. He has a lot of fancy words about the various historical thinkers who went against the grain. Sounds nice. I wonder how Ron DeSantis is treating free inquiry in Florida?
But in reality, this is really just a handout to an incredible niche test used by a handful of Evangelical right-wing schools. The CLT dates all the way back to ... 2015. It's just a way for Republicans to spend education money fattening the pockets of the CLT advisors to provide these tests, and to push students away from real universities to ones that teach them nonsense. And the guys profiting from this, is Cornel West's co-author on this article who started the test and Cornel West himself.
But also, pushing the 'Western Classics' didn't happen in a vacuum. Ron DeSantis pushed the CLT, as part of his plot to get rid of African American Studies and other 'woke' courses that are part of the AP studies.

TALLAHASSEE — In February, when Gov. Ron DeSantis went after the College Board’s new Advanced Placement course on African American studies, he hinted that Florida might do without the organization’s courses and tests.
Two months later, Republican state lawmakers are preparing to head in that direction.
Using their budget proposal and a bill (HB 1537) that’s viewed as the Florida Department of Education’s legislation, the House and Senate are looking to pivot from the College Board’s Advanced Placement courses and SAT exam to other alternatives.
For the SAT, the state is considering a “classical and Christian” exam alternative called Classic Learning Test. It would be used as an optional graduation test requirement and to determine Bright Futures scholarship eligibility, as well as a college entrance exam at Florida’s public colleges and universities. Schools would have the option to administer the SAT, ACT or Classic Learning Test starting next school year.
For AP, the chambers have agreed to spend millions creating Florida-based alternative courses and tests, asking state universities and colleges to help establish the materials. A third-party organization would help create the exams.

Cornel West's own books would likely be in the firing line of Florida schools for writing about the Black experience in a way that wasn't completely stripped of all real history.
And who else is on the CLT Board?
Christopher Rufo, listed as Senior Fellow, The Manhattan Institute. Rufo was also appointed by DeSantis to destroy Florida's New College.. So he isn't just a think tanker, but directly on DeSantis's payroll.
Also included is Kevin Roberts, the President of the Heritage Foundation.
If you look at the photo the CLT board posted, its literally just a sea of White Republicans.
So Cornel West has no problem writing a public article praising Ron DeSantis for helping free inquiry, as he tries to get rid of any books about LGBT people or Black people and working alongside Chris Rufo, the guy who managed the Right Wings Critical Race Theory panic. Seems bad.
Ask yourself. If a Biden appointee to Education Secretary had this kind of background of supporting the privatisation of schools, and of hanging around figures like these, would you be cool with it? No of course not.
The People's People Grift
You might also note from his announcement that he isn't running for the Green Party, which already has ballot lines in many states. But for the People's Party.
Said People's Party is headed up by Nick Brana, and has been championed heavily by Jimmy Dore.
Both Nick Brana and Jimmy Dore have been credibly accused of sexual harassment and assault.
And this is what the People's Party online presence looks like
https://twitter.com/marionumber4/status/1665768271637782532
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fx32IR5WAAQTjzf?format=jpg&name=large
Very left-wing. Totally not a right-wing grift.
In terms of the other track record of the People's Party, they aggressively solicited donations and promised that they would run dozens of candidates in the 2022 midterm. They didn't run a single one. Wonder where all that money went?
So the bright spark from all of this is that likely the People's Party will grift all the donations sent in, and not use it to actually get ballot access outside of the handful of states they have access to.
His Platform
Cornel West's website right now, is pretty limited. But one issue caught my eye in particular

End the Wars Bring our troops home and invest those trillions of war dollars into American communities. Support veterans, stop all foreign military aid, close the bases, disband NATO, and ban nuclear weapons globally.

Stop all foreign military aid and disband NATO. You know, while Russia is aggressively invading Ukraine. Yet another Leftist that is pro Imperialist invasion by a Neo Tsar.
What wars? Bring the troops home from where exactly. Biden already left Afghanistan and Iraq a couple of years ago.
And I wonder what magical spell he has in mind, to get Russia, China, North Korea, India, Pakistan, and Israel to consider giving up their nuclear weapons.
More of the Company he keeps
Other assorted people, he hangs out with
He is of course a constantly returning guest on Bill Maher.
https://twitter.com/cassiepmillestatus/1138583273242857472

I wish "Milo Yiannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, and Cornel West walk into a bar..." was the beginning of a joke, but I'm sorry to report that it is actually real life

He decided the prime place to announce his candidacy is on ... Russel Brand. Who went full anti-vaxx and Pro Russia.
https://twitter.com/CornelWest/status/1666114005877010432
https://twitter.com/themattdimitri/status/1543780892241543171

Hate group founder Gavin McInnes asks Cornel West to name an American fascist West: There's a spiritual fascism inside all of us... as a Christian I see it inside of myself Candace Owens: The Klan were Democrats West: Yes, they were [As if MLK had no idea of that history of Dems]
Candace Owens: They tried to blame me for a mass shooting in New Zealand, saying that this person got radicalized by my ideas of Black conservatism in America The Christchurch New Zealand Mosque shooter stated in his manifesto Owens was the "person who radicalized [him] the most"

Reportedly he went on this because Gavin McInnes was offering money to do it, which other figures turned down

I gave Matthew this footage. I have the full segments for both appearances. At the time McInnes was begging liberals to go on this show offering them $5000 an appearance - Dave Packman, Sam Seder and Ana Kasparian all reported McInnes offered them money.

Selling out for $5,000. I guess we know his price to sit down with a Nazi, on two separate appearances.
Conclusion
So if you consider everything. At best, he is incredibly naive and easily taken in by Right-wingers which makes him utterly unsuited to any political position, let alone President. And more likely, he just doesn't give a fuck, and is cashing out. While also being a crank.