I Always Thought This Shot In Age Of Ultron Looked Familiar. The Picture On The Bottom Is The Closing

First Avenger

This is seriously the funniest thing I've read in a very long time. Stories like these makes you rethink your desire to be an editor.

I’ll never not be amused by the fact that I can drop the words “crucifix nail nipples” into a conversation and some of you who have been with me since the livejournal days will join me in the flashbacks, screaming and crying all the way.

It’s been almost twenty years, but I still tear up every time I hear the Hobbits’ theme played any time during the LotR and Hobbit soundtracks. 

Absolute. Perfection. 

Donna: hang on, I’ll handle the diplomacy this time

Donna: *turns to large angry alien*

Donna: hello there you big fat bone-bag. this is My Fist, lemme introduce it to your-

Doctor: do you have any idea what diplomacy is

Youtube just recommended re-watching the Broadchurch series 2 trailer, and I had genuinely forgotten I had been more excited for that to air on January 5th than I had been for Christmas.

‘The Book Thief’ tells the fictional story of a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany in 1939. When the story begins Liesel Meminger cannot read but by stealing an old copy of ‘A Gravedigger’s Handbook’ she convinces her foster father to teach her slowly how to read. Along the way Liesel begins to understand the awful and awesome power of words as a political world built on a dictator’s own words spells death and destruction for millions of people. The story itself is narrated by Death as he travels to and fro from place to place and the entire narrative is spun with a bleak, black sense of humor and sense of human understanding as Death spends his days living in the filth and destruction of wars and murders and, at rare moments, kindness and beauty even at the very end.

Alec Hardy remembers and dreams about drowning as much if not more than actually carrying Pipa’s body and that affects me A LOT.

As someone who has studied Psychology and "mental illnesses" I love the fact that we see him express himself at her level. He makes himself more personable by shedding his jacket and his shoes and therefore makes himself more "human". Then he places the cigarette on the ground on her opposite side so that if/when she decides (and that's very important, too, him allowing her the choice) to pick it up it won't be in his direction.

And she responds! She takes off her own jacket and although she doesn't say a word you can tell she's still listening to him.

Can I just speak for a second about how much of an absolute crazy BAMF Stonewall Jackson was?

I mean, this was a guy who was raised in the mountains of Virginia (later West Virginia) who pulled through West Point because of his skills in math and sheer tenaciousness. But he LIKED the army, and even after the Mexican American War he was teaching students what it meant to be a soldier.

When the South seceded from the Union, Jackson followed his State and was recruited into the Confederacy.

“Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken and can then be destroyed by half their number.” 

He earned his nickname of “Stonewall” in the Battle of First Manassas (First Bull Run as it was known in the North) when he stood in the midst of battle without retreating and thus inspired his men and the surrounding Rebels to stand their ground and chase the Union off. He became one of General Robert E. Lee’s most trusted soldiers and friends, so much so that when Jackson died Lee reportedly said, “He has lost his left arm. I have lost my right.” Jackson and Lee together won so many battles due to their combined tactical genius and tenaciousness that if Jackson hadn’t died then it’s possible that the Confederacy may have won the war.

Aside from his (near) brilliance on the field, Stonewall was well known for being eccentric. A list of habits and beliefs he had baffled contemporaries and still fascinates people today:

1) He believed that one of his arms was longer than the other and so would frequently held up the “longer” one to aide in better circulation.

2) Although debatable today, it was also said that Jackson loved chewing on whole lemons and was rarely seen without one even in the midst of battle.

3) He believed that if he had pepper in his food that it would make his left leg ache.

4) He was known by contemporaries as a “champion sleeper”, able to sleep anywhere-- even falling asleep with food in his mouth.

And that was only a few things.

And of course Jackson was a religious zealot, believing that he belonged to the “army of the Living God.” His religious views made it so that he was unafraid even in battle, believing that the Lord was utterly in control and would call him home only when it was time. He wouldn’t even mail a letter on Saturday in fear that it would be in transit on a Sunday.

But of course his respect of the Sabbath didn’t stop him from participating in battle. 

He was also oddly bloodthirsty. He was known for his need for pursuit of the enemy, and there was even once when asked how the Confederacy could stop the Union from pursuing them, Jackson replied, “Kill them! Kill them all!” 

Jackson has got to be one of the most fascinating figures of the American Civil War. I can’t say that this man was as great a hero as history will sometimes paint him but he was still someone who even today is hotly debated among historians. Some say he was a religious nut. Still others say that he was a hero of the South. 

I think he was just a man, but he was someone who history will never quite figure out. Stonewall Jackson observed the Sabbath but was unafraid to kill the enemy. He was a borderline hypochondriac but he was unafraid of death. He’s simply a contradiction to himself in a lot of ways, and I think that is what makes Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson still such a figurehead of the Civil War and, I daresay, one its most fascinating.

Wish Jodie the absolute best as the Thirteenth Doctor! You’ve shown us what you can do as Beth Latimer in Broadchurch with Chris Chibnall as the writer-- give us more of your brilliance now!