HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you
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The couple only had one child, namely the princess Maria. Unfortunately, the child fell ill and died, only four years old. I suppose the loss of her daughter made Elizabeth even more inclined to follow her artistic dreams than before, simply to fill her days and bring meaning to her life. (However, that's me interpreting what happened, and I may be wrong).
In her case that meant writing and publishing books, using the rather exotic pseudonym of Carmen Sylva. Actually, she was quite prolific, writing not a few works:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1660504.Carmen_Sylva
I must admit that I haven't read her books, but it's safe to say that her main theme is of a spiritual kind. She is preoccupied with the issue of suffering, and use the fairy tale genre.
These years we seem to be drowning in floods of new forms of misogyny. Maybe the best term for it would be "The War of the Worlds", namely the male and the female worlds. As we know, they hold different ideologies, etc.. When I visit sites as e.g. Reddit I'm surprised at the fierce male hatred of women and the blatant misogyny in young men. I've seen it in the older generations too, but didn't know that the younger ones are even worse. On some websites there seems to be a general male demand that more women - which means their own generation, sisters, wives, etc. - stop their feminism and instead return to the sex roles of their great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers or so: ONE sexual partner - namely them - and they must not lose their much prized virginity to anyone else, but these male "prizes". These men are considered able to satisfy them in any way possible simply by being who they are. On the other way, they should be free to roam the streets of whatever "love city" they fancy while women stay at home, tending the children. Strangely enough, these men have no suggestions as to how the women are to be provided for by male labor.
One might try to laugh off such naive delusions in modern times, but it's quite obvious that this is their genuine opinion. It may look liked children's fantasies, but to them it's "The Truth" - which it's not .... Sadly enough, the ideological climate has changed, and this new ideology is becoming "normalized".
They exist, but there are not as many as male sex-murderers. One of the most baffling cases is the one of the Hungarian Piroska Jancso-Ladanyi (1934-1954). She didn't kill men, but women, and her inclination to do so allegedly was her strong sexual drive. The author Szilard Rubin described her life extensively in the novel "Little Saints".
Szilard Rubin
The crimes of Piroska Jancso-Ladanyi were gruesome: She killed - and raped - five very young girls between 1953 and 1954. Her rape consisted of "rubbing herself against the corpse of the murdered girl". I take it that she was a sort of "misplaced lesbian" who tried to find her sexual way in a bewildering situation without ever being able to do so. That may not be so very surprising when considering her family background, which was pitiful to say the least. Not that it excuses what she did, but it may explain the pattern of her actions, at least up to a point
She was the daughter of a totally penniless woman who, at the age of 16, started to offer sexual favors to male farmers as part of her working for them as a maid. She had five children by four different men, one of them the biological father of Piroska and her brother Jozsef. He was forced to pay the sum of 600 forints as a "once and never again"-alimony for his daughter, not wanting to deal with her again. At that time she had followed in the footsteps of her mother, becoming a prostitute at a very young age. Her mother's customers were mostly Hungarians, whereas she often serviced Soviet soldiers from the nearby garnison. I suppose that's how she learnt to speak fluent Russian, which was something that was noticed when she was arrested for theft. At that time she wrote poetry, loved to wander around by herself, and most likely got more and more confused about who and what she was. All of that confusion ended when she was arrested as a female serial-killer and was hanged on December 12, 1954, leaving her son, Mihaly, motherless. Her last wish, namely to see him, was not granted.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piroska_Jancs%C3%B3-Lad%C3%A1nyi
https://boobytrapec.blogspot.com/2025/03/woman-who-killed-for-lust.html
There are loads of vaginal myths out there in the public. One of these that I've seen before is this one about the "one hole" vagina. Although it's tempting to laugh it off as some crazy guys trying to be funny, or a hillbilly who doesn't know much after years in what I call "thoughts-and-prayers"-schools, it would not be fair on the guys and others like them. By now, I suspect that it's the individual teachers who don't feel obliged to see to it that the children they are set to educate aren't being taught basics. They feel embarrassed by the subject, or they simply didn't learn about it themselves. Now and then, it looks like there are some new, healthy, unbiased approaches toward the issue of biology and science, and that not everything is blotted out by religious fruitcakes, but then one may see hefty discussions like the one above and realizes that that's not the case: Biology and sex are still buried in myths, some sexist, and some simply proofs of extreme ignorance.
Surprisingly enough, even UK women need some biology lessons as well - yeah, maybe even many more people of all sexes all over the world don't know how to count entrances and outlets "down there" when it comes to women. As men have been "the normal" for ages, some may even hate the truth that women have one more "hole" than men. It's crazy and not at all as it should be, but it seems very likely.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1635139/
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pussy-bites-back-vagina-dentata-myths-from-around-the-world/
Wikipedia
Britannica
It's a very strange experience for a writer to see how one of the worst leeches of the world of books, Filippo Bernardini, got away with his theft of unpublished works, e.g. by a well-known author like Margaret Atwood. By pretending to be a legitimate publisher/employee he got access to many unpublished scripts of both newbie authors and established ones, and he is supposed to have stolen more than 1000 manuscripts. HOW did he avoid prison for something like that??? To me, that is something quite incomprehensable because each script represents work by an author: Time spent, ideas, and the writing itself don't float around in a workless sphere, but takes dedication and stamina, just like e.g. harvesting by a farmer. The sentence of Filippo Bernardini only was for a much deserved deportation as well as restitution money to the biggest name in publishing, Penguin House: $88,000.
https://www.vulture.com/2023/03/book-thief-filippo-bernardini-gets-no-jail-time-deported.htmlhttps://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-59893035
https://nypost.com/2023/03/10/book-thief-filippo-bernardini-claims-love-of-reading-drove-him-to-steal/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/24/book-fraudster-filippo-bernardini-spared-jail
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64197625
Wikipedia
Joseph Brooks doesn't exactly look like the picture of a "cover-boy" of romantic music. Nonetheless, he wrote the hit song "You Light Up My World", besides producing and directing the 1977-drama of the same name, all of which brought him fame and wealth. Also, he composed e.g. "Blue Balloon" as well as jingles for e.g. Pepsi and Maxwell House. However, somewhere along the road he seems to have turned from a well-known and appreciated song-writer into a detestable criminal: A serial rapist. The winner of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Grammy Award ended up committing suicide before his trial for rape in 2011. When that happened, his son, Nicholas, was also facing prison for a serious crime, namely murder.
Nicholas Brooks
Looking quite cute, the son of Joseph Brooks, Nicholas, led a happy-go-lucky playboy-life. He never had any kind of career after he dropped out of college, and didn't seem to want to commit himself to anything but drugs. They were the true "love of his life", but in 2010 the charming, young man (24 years old) caught the eye of the Peruvian-American swimsuit designer, Sylvie Cachay (1977-2010). They bonded after one of her dogs was hit by a car, and he comforted and helped her after the accident. Contrary to him, she was a successful woman with a fine career as a fashion designer. She was the one who headed the swimsuit designing team of Victoria's Secret, which was one of her many achievements that cemented her fame in the world of fashion.
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On December 9, 2010, Sylvie was found strangled and drowned in a bathtub at the Soho House where the couple was staying at the time. At that time, they had been together for six months, but she may have made it clear to him that she wanted out of their relationship, which could be the trigger that turned him into a murderer. Anyway, he was convicted of murdering her, and on September 23, 2013, he was sentenced to 25 years to life.
What went wrong with this father and son? That's anybody's guess ....
https://nypost.com/tag/nicholas-brooks/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0112072/
https://nymag.com/news/features/71271/
Wikipedia
Jane Austen
Some authors are formula writers, even some great authors like e.g. Jane Austen, although nobody would call her that as the term is considered derogatory. Someone like e.g. Philippa Gregory, who has published a lot of historical romances, also is a formula writer: Each one of her books always has a fixated gallery of main characters, namely a Whore and an Angel. The fixated gallery of Jane Austen will be the smart, but not the most beautiful girl who - sometimes to her own surprise - conquers the richest, but very demure and even unpleasant hero, like, for instance, Mr. Darcy of "Pride and Prejudice". When conquered, he changes into a loving husband who simply adores his bride.
Actually, one will meet this very same formula in e.g. the works of the late "Queen of Romance", Barbara Cartland. To me, the consistent formula writings of many female authors signals something very interesting as to the use of these books. They have been the favorite literature of "taken women", i.e. the non-feminist readers, who need to find confirmation of ideologies they have been taught since early childhood: YOU are the ultimate prize of the love game in Patriarchy, not the helpless victim to the ruses of men. Even though you may seem to be suppressed by society, you will always win because you, morally and in other ways, are the one who score the highest.
The predictable storylines of formula fiction is not a coincidence, but what it's all about: Get hold of a confusing world which not always takes too kindly to women.
No, that's not normal! Also, what's not quite "normal" - or at least common - is the tRumpian "body twist" when he is delivering a speech of some kind. As far as I can see, the twist starts at his waist and then goes up, making his shoulders move in a sudden jerk/twist. It's surprising that a twist may be part of flirtation, whereas the "jerk" may signal a medical condition that needs treatment. Is he flirting with the audience? Yes, of course he is, as he is out to seduce them into electing and supporting him. When I see him performing his special twist, I see it as something insincere or even traitorous in his speeches, but that may be taking the interpretation a bit too far - may be ....
This photo depicts a hand gesture that's common in people who want to point out their authority. That seems to be the favorite hand gesture of Elon Musk, but as can be seen, tRump uses it too. However, often he cradles his right hand in his left hand as if he wants to protect it. That cradled, and thus protected, hand has quite often been seen with weird disfigurements looking like some kind of bruises, which indicates a medical problem of some kind. Anyway, the cradling looks like his special way of giving himself comfort, and it's interesting that that hand gesture is more common in him than the "stapling" of fingers that signals the wish to exude authority.
Elon Musk and his habit of finger stapling looks more genuinely concerned with a strong wish for authority than tRump which is a bit surprising. Maybe he doesn't feel as secure and powerful as he wants to come out to the public - and to tRump?
Max Ernst
Hands are unique body parts, giving us and our "cousins", monkeys of all kinds, opportunities to make an impact on the world as such. As everyone with a loving dog knows, paws may be quite nice, but they can't compete with a hand when it comes to altering what makes our world work. Also, paws come short when it comes to body language which is both good and bad: They may be tell-tale traitors ....
https://www.helpguide.org/relationships/communication/nonverbal-communication
Wikipedia
https://medium.com/@keriannesheree/a-tortured-genius-bce8c03a109a
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19750232/william-james-sidis
Wikipedia
Henry VIII (18 years old)
As a young man, he was considered extremely handsome. Well, that may be the case, as it's difficult to estimate his looks from this old portrait. Normally, we think of him as the male hormone-bomb of later years, strutting along, flaunting his masculinity as some sort of banner of what he is as a human being.
I think his calves earned him most compliments, but to him, the most important part of his body must have been "the bulge" that sets him apart as a man. He was a man, and at one time, (or several times???), he boasted about his nightly ejaculations which he saw as a proof that he was all butch. However, boasting doesn't prove anything, and his behavior with women may indicate that the situation wasn't the best for either him as a person or his dynastic dreams of many healthy sons.
One of his favorite manly exploits was jostling. As a young man, being the sole, surviving male heir to the throne, he was not allowed to engage in this dangerous sport, but as a king he loved to show off his bravery and his skill by jostling. However, in 1524 he had a very serious accident when he forgot to close the vizier of his helmet, and his opponent had some problems with his outfit. Unfortunately, Henry VIII was hit in a manner that might have killed him, but which "only" set off a long line of health problems that ruined almost everything for him. Not that the accident is the sole reason for what may have been caused by weight gains, Diabetes, etc., but there is a marked difference of the quality of his life before and after it happened. One of these differences was his ability to perform sexually as before. His virility was impaired and one wonders if that was the reason for his executing two of his wives, Anne Boleyn and her cousin, Catherine Howard.
Catherine Howard
Anne kept her tongue, but still his sexual problems may have been one of the reasons for his wish to get rid of her. With Catherine, it was different: She was a rather giddy, young thing who betrayed the besotted king, who then turned upon her, blaming her for adultery and for not having been a virgin when they married. To me, it seems that his perceptible masculine vanity played a major part in his execution of her as a witness to his failure in the royal bed. That part of the history of his "serial executions" of wives, as well as his rejection of the "ugly" Anne of Cleves, signals a hurt masculine vanity that only might be alleviated by getting rid of those who might expose him.
https://www.tudorsociety.com/henry-viiis-1524-jousting-accident-sarah-bryson/
Britannica
Wikipedia
Alan Turing (1912-1954)
The prime "father" of the modern computer was a gay, British man who met a lot of problems in his life, but who succeeded in solving problems others had had to give up on. His work on what turned into the modern computer started with his wish to take on the Entscheidungsproblem that gave fellow scientists a headache. In 1936 he came into goal by inventing The "Universal Turing Machine" that had instructions in symbols that could manipulate other symbols.
In WWII he made a valuable contribution as one of the codebreakers for the UK government, who worked at the special codebreaker center, Bletchley Park. It has been said that without him the war would have lasted several years longer. What he - and his colleagues, like his short timed fiancée, Joan Clarke - did was to work on decoding the German Enigma cipher machine so that the Brits could intercept Nazi-messages and decode them. Something which, of course, was of great value to them in the war. After the war he went on developing his computer ideas, which, however, led to something else: His studies in artificial intelligence. This part of his ongoing studies were made famous in a paper, he published in 1950 on a subject that must have been seen as rather far-fetched at that time: "Can machines think"? His so-called "Turing test" was part of these studies as it was set to determine whether a machine could imitate human conversations.
Alan Turing has been estimated to have an IQ of ca. 185, putting him in the top 0.1% of the British population. Always thinking and studying, he came up with many new ideas and inventions all through his life, but in some respect he proved to be the "fuzzy professor" of many hilarious cartoons: Fearing a Nazi invasion he bought silver bars for what may have been most of his money. The reason for this was, that he wanted to shield them from the Nazis by burying them somewhere only he knew. However, he sort of forgot where that safe place was, and he seems to have had problems with decoding the code for it, so the silver may still be hidden somewhere in the underground of England.
Anyway, in 1950 he was accused of what was considered a criminal offense at that time: A sexual relationship with a man. He was given the choice of undergoing a hormonal treatment to reduce his "sinful libido" or go to jail. He chose the medical treatment, and I suppose it may have had a negative effect on him, maybe even leading to his death by what is considered to be a suicide in 1954. It took many years for the State to pardon him for his "gross offense", as it didn't happen until 2013 after a campaign to recognize him as a national hero. Four years later the same kind of pardon was given to all gay men/people who had been convicted for homosexuality.
A beautiful woman, but I think that's a small ironic smile. Maybe my knowledge of whom - and what - she was makes me see something that's not there, but no matter what, this photo of Violet Charlesworth (1884-some time after 1912) strikes me as a nominator of smartness, irony and the special pride known as arrogance. However, other people would most likely have felt a certain shame at being and doing what she was and did, but that I see nothing of in her portrait: She loved to fake whatever she set her mind to fake, including her own biography, her character - and her non-existing wealth.
She was an Englishwoman with a proclaimed love for Scotland, (which may have been a pretence!). For several years she defrauded people to believe that she was a very wealthy heiress who would soon inherit a substantial fortune. That was absolutely not true, but people believed her and her fabricated identity as a woman of a good, rich family. Why? Well, she was pretty and charming. Also, she appeared to be of a certain social standing. The reason for this pretence was to obtain loans and favors from those who were what she claimed to be, namely rich.
Many people must have been shocked when it was reputed that she had died in a freak car accident, when she and her car fell off a cliff and were swept away by the sea. However, some didn't believe in this quite convenient accident that sort of blotted her and her loans out - or so she thought. As her body was nowhere to be found, and there were no trustworthy witnesses, an investigation was started, and soon she was found for real, alive and probably thriving, in Scotland. In 1910 both she and her mother were charged with obtaining money under false pretences, and they were sentenced to five years of prison, but strangely enough after some time the sentence was reduced to three years. When she was released in 1912 she went back to Scotland, but from then on all traces of her and her life have been missing. Weird? Yeah, but also very interesting because it can't have been all that easy to make herself "invisible" as her trial had made her quite famous, both within and outside of Britain.
The Innocent One
