In 2013, a surviving Goomba animatronic from the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie was sold at an auction. This is the state of the animatronic after 20 years of decay, overlaid over the suit from the film that it was originally used in.
“hermit crabs carry their homes around with them!” oh absolutely. anything you put on your body that covers you from the waist down is a “home”. not like there’s another word that covers shit like this
thinking about the fucked up lore for the tinman in the wizard of oz
So he was just a regular ass munchkin man named Nick Chopper in love with a woman, Nimee Amee, but she was the ward of some old lady. And the old lady got the Wicked Witch of the East to enchant the Tin Man’s axe so that it kept cutting off bits of Nick Chopper to get him to fuck off since she didn’t want Nimee to get married.
But he was like, fuck that, I love Nimee and went on using the cursed axe and replacing his missing parts with tin.
However when the axe chopped out his heart, he lost interest in Nimee and became completely made of tin.
After the events of the Wizard of Oz, the Tinman decides that he would like to see what happened to the woman he loved and so he looks for her. He then comes across ANOTHER Tinman rusted in the forest, Captain Fyter who also was in love with the same woman and lost of his body parts the same way, but with his sword being cursed. They both miss Nimee but agree to find her and let her choose who she wants to be with.
And along the way, some fucked up shit happened when Tinman and Captain Fyter find the tinsmith that made their replacement parts. Turns out he has a barrel full of discarded human body parts.
And another fucked up thing??? It was missing important parts like Captain Fyter’s head and Tin Man’s limbs.
The most fucked up thing though???? After the Witch of the East got killed by Dorothy, fuckin,,,, Nimee Amee is married to a man named Chopfyt, who’s made up of the leftover human parts from Nick Chopper and Captain Fyter glued together.
And Nimee is like “fuck off I just want to be left alone” and everyone collectively shrugs and goes back to their homes, while Captain Fyter works for the government that’s ruled by a trans God.
Also yes, sentient robots do exist, no the Tin Man isn’t considered a sentient robot because he has a human soul. So.
the book is free to read so you too can be just as traumatised as I was when I read this when i was a kid
I feel the need to add that the sentient robot’s name is Tik-Tok, and he’s literally such an early example of a sentient robot in literature that the word robot literally hadn’t even been invented yet when he debuted.
This was my favorite part of the Oz books, along with Ozma being trans
I keep forgetting how messed up Tinman’s lore is. It’s so metal
Also even like. Economically. It’s better to give money to poor people. That’s basic Keynesian economics.
Give $600 to someone with no money and they will put it back into the economy, buying groceries, clothes, accommodations, maybe some small luxuries. Give $600 to a rich person and it goes into their bank accounts and just stays there being useless.
If you give a poor person $20, that same $20 will be spent easily 10x over, by 10 different people, in 10 different businesses- within a week.
1- poor guy buys groceries at a local bodega.
2- the bodega owner pays his employees from the cash in the register.
3- bodega employee goes to Starbucks and tips the barista in cash.
4- the barista owes their roommate from lunch last week and pays them back
5- roommate buys something from an indie creator on Etsy
6- Etsy creator splurges on takeout & tips in cash
7- the takeout delivery driver fills up on gas
8- gas station manager (who got paid from the register) takes their kid to the ice cream truck
9- Ice cream truck driver buys a new tire and gets an oil change
10- mechanic gets lunch on a shift
….and so on.
Giving money to poor people is the single best way to stimulate and energize the economy… because poor people do something with money that rich people don’t- THEY FUCKING SPEND IT.
Giving $600 to a poor person is like composting food scraps. It returns nutrients to the economic ecosystem and supports the livelihood of others.
Giving $600 to a rich person is like tossing plastic into the ocean. It’s added to a massive floating garbage patch of corporate wealth. It disrupts the balance of the economic ecosystem, leading to consequences like economic ecosystem collapse.
In a healthy economy, money continues to flow. Rich people are bloodclots.
Speaking of how i used to work for CNN does anyone wanna hear about how fucking wild my job interview for that was because it still haunts my dreams sometimes
Alright lets go
Considering that CNN anchors are pretty public eye in the interest of confidentiality im not gonna reveal what desk this was at, who i used to work under, etc. This was a year before corona hit, so I figure it’s been long enough that i can tell this
So I was fully applying for a job I wasn’t entirely qualified for. I had tons of field journalism and editorial experience, but that was in media journalism. I wasn’t expecting to get a call back, so of course I went and presented my best self. I was expecting this interview to happen in like, a private office. I got up to their floor, shook hands with my interviewer, and he deadass just… stood in the hallway with me while writers and tech people were running by and did it there.
I handed him my CV, he looked at it for all of 2 seconds before he said “this is a nice layout,” and folded it into his pocket to never look at again. He doesn’t bring up my experience, or my references, skills, education, anything. He just starts firing off riddles at me
I swear to god, he doesn’t miss a beat. He just goes from complimenting my CV’s look and then says “what’s the world’s largest desert?”
I ask “hot or cold?”
He says “either”
I say “then Antarctica.” I have no idea what the fuck is happening, but this might as well happen. My life is already so goddamn weird.
“But there’s ice everywhere.”
“Doesn’t mean the water is accessible.”
He nods and says “clever. Not a lot of people get that on the first try.”
And the entire interview is just trick questions and riddles of increasing difficulty thrown at me in a hallway. He starts leading me around the office at one point while he keeps playing Riddler to my Batman. He never once looks at my qualifications, I assume he’s done that in my online application. But he doesn’t question me about my work experience or what i can bring to the table, he just keeps asking me shit about hypothetical games of russian roulette and what I would do in the trolley problem. I am in professional business attire, he is wearing jeans, a graphic shirt, and a manchester united football club snapback.
I answer his riddles, he bids me farewell with a smile and a well-natured clap between my shoulder blades that’s hard enough to knock my glasses down to the tip of my nose once i turn around. All I get is a “you’re impressive, kid,” on my way out. I am confused as all fuck as I step back outside and hail a taxi, and spend the entire drive home in silence wondering what in the fresh hell that was.
