#i’ve been at the end of my rope since november 2021 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wrestlingisfake · 3 years

Text

All Out preview

Here we go with AEW's annual Labor Day weekend show in Hoffman Estates, just like the original All In show three years ago. I have been going to wrestling shows for days, and it all comes down to this!

The show starts at 8pm EDT, streaming on Bleacher Report (in the US and Canada) and Fite.tv for $49.99. A free pre-show will be available at 7pm EDT.

CM Punk vs. Darby Allin - This is CM Punk's first pro wrestling match since January 26, 2014, when he spent 49 minutes in the Royal Rumble working with a staph infection and a possible concussion. The following night he walked out of WWE, leading to seven and a half years of debate about what is next move would/should be. Two weeks ago he debuted with AEW and declared that he wanted to help the younger talent, starting with a match against Allin. Allin, for his part, took some exception to being the first opponent, as if he's just a stepping stone to bigger matches.

The big issue here is seeing how well Punk, 42, has held up after seven years away. I've seen reports that he's looking good in training, but you just don't know until the bell rings. Regardless, I expect the hometown crowd to be very forgiving to Punk, and Allin is good enough to carry the match if he really has to.

I feel like I ought to have more to say about this, but it also feels like everything's been said. I can't believe Punk would lose his first match in. But I can believe that if Punk insisted on doing the job, AEW would let him do that. It'd be unusual for the returning guy to come up short, but New Japan does that sometimes and it can work as a longer build to the first win. Still, it is Chicago (sort of), so my gut says Punk wins to let us feel special.

Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage - Omega is defending the AEW men's world title. For months, Omega held four different belts, representing championships in AEW, AAA, and Impact Wrestling. But on August 13 Christian defeated Omega for the Impact/TNA world title (and later retired the TNA belt), leaving Kenny more vulnerable than ever. The AAA and Impact titles aren't at stake in this match, so no matter who what happens the winner will be a double champion.

Cage is a great wrestler, but not a great challenger for this match. For months the storytelling pointed towards Hangman Page in this spot, but Page was abruptly written off television so he could take paternity leave. I don't think anybody resents Christian for filling in, but nobody really expects the 47-year-old, recently returned from a seven-year retirement, to win the big one. It's also a rematch of something we already saw a few weeks ago, which isn't a big deal but it's a bit of a talking point when everyone is always dogging WWE for excessive rematches.

The big go-home angle on September 1 was that Omega, the Young Bucks, and their buddies destroyed Christian, the Lucha Bros., and their buddies. After the show went off the air Tony Khan promised that this kind of bullshit interference wouldn't happen in the Bucks-Lucha Bros. cage match. Well, okay, but this match doesn't have a steel cage, so I have a feeling there will be plenty of bullshit interference. And I'm willing to bet that interference gives Omega the win while somewhat protecting Christian.

Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Penta El 0M & Rey Fenix - The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick) are defending the AEW tag team title. The Lucha Bros. won a four-team tournament to earn this shot. The Bucks have relied on a lot of outside interference from their entourage lately, so to counter that this match will be held inside a steel cage. In AEW, the only way to win a cage match is by pinfall or submission.

I was at All Out 2019 when these teams last met in a crazy ladder match (which feels like a million years ago). Everyone raved about it, and also worried that the Bucks damn near killed themselves. Personally I had a really shitty view of the ring, which made it hard to follow the match. This time I've got a much better view, so I'm looking forward to some good karma.

In theory the Bucks have sworn off doing the dangerous shit from the ladder match, but technically this is a cage match so maybe they'll just do different dangerous shit. Personally I'm more intrigued by seeing them change their game to fit in the confines of the cage, which doesn't lend itself to springboard flips off the ropes. But the cage has places to stand at the top, which will encourage the idea of setting up crazy highspots.

I feel like a title change is possible, but I could just as easily see the Bucks hold the belts for another six months. Santana and Ortiz seem to be next in line for a shot, and honestly I think that would work with either of these teams. But I guess I'll lean towards the Bucks retaining.

Chris Jericho vs. MJF - MJF defeated Jericho on November 7, 2020, to earn entry into Jericho's stable, the Inner Circle. MJF inevitably betrayed Jericho and formed his own stable, the Pinnacle, which beat the Inner Circle on May 5, 2021. Jericho was so determined to get revenge that he accepted MJF's terms to perform five "labors" to earn a rematch, but MJF beat Jericho once again on August 18, 2021. So now MJF is 3-0 against Jericho. (For some reason we're counting the ten-man match on May 5 but not the other one on May 30, which Jericho's team won, but whatever.) To get this final rematch, Jericho has put his career on the line.

Suddenly everything else in this storyline has taken a back seat to the idea that this may really be the end of Chris Jericho's 30-year in-ring career. There are plenty of fans who think Jericho, 50, should hang it up, but now that it might actually happen I think people aren't so sure they're ready for it all to end. The timing for Jericho to tease this is perfect, because he could easily just win and go another couple of years, or he could easily just finish today.

Part of what makes this work so well is MJF. I think everyone recognizes that MJF is going to be a top name in the 2020s, and that Jericho wants to make this guy. So it's like, if Jericho can get retired by anyone he wants, why wouldn't he pick MJF? I think the match will feel a little flat if Jericho comes up short yet again, but if it's the end of his career it suddenly doesn't matter if he's lost too many times, y'know?

Still, something tells me this isn't the end. Something tells me Jericho has more he wants to do. And something tells me, in a few years, we may be wondering if it would have been better if he retired on this show.

Britt Baker vs. Kris Statlander - Baker is defending the AEW women's world title. I expect to like this match but there's not really much to it. Baker was feuding with Red Velvet a while back and then Statlander made the save for Velvet. Baker and her crony Rebel have brought in Jamie Hayter to stack the deck against Statlander and Velvet. I think it's way too soon for Baker to drop the title, and I don't expect Kris to be the one to take it from her. So this is kind of a formality to kill time until Baker vs. Thunder Rosa down the road.

Miro vs. Eddie Kingston - Miro's AEW TNT championship is on the line. Somehow in the past year Miro has gone from Kip Sabian's gamer buddy to a monster heel who thinks God has anointed him to beat the shit out of people. Kingston has gone from a gutless heel to the most beloved guy in AEW. Wrestling is great.

Anyway, I love both of these guys, but I can't just bet that all the wrestlers have a good time. If Eddie's going to win a championship, it really ought to be in New York. I realize Chicago is AEW's favorite and we get all the good shit, but I've had my CM Punk ice cream and I'm maaaaaybeee going to get the Bryan Danielson debut too, so I'm willing to let New York have this one thing. Just this one time.

Jon Moxley vs. Satoshi Kojima - Moxley is the new GCW world champion following a surprise appearance at last night's GCW show; I assume that does not turn this into a title match. Moxley told top contender Nick Gage "you know where to find me," and it's anyone's guess if Gage will show up here to accept that invitation.

Mox is a busy boy making friends everywhere he goes. For a few weeks he was angling for a match with a top New Japan Pro Wrestling star on this show. The leading candidate was Hiroshi Tanahashi, but several other interesting names were discussed by fans and pundits alike. After that buzz, Kojima is a bit of a letdown.

Don't get me wrong, it's cool to get a guy who's held the IWGP heavyweight title, the All Japan Triple Crown, and the NWA world title. Kojima's a legend. But at this stage of his career, he's the guy New Japan sends when the real stars aren't available. Besides which, my cup runneth over when it comes to 50-year-old guys showing up to prove they can wrestle like they're 40. And I don't think anybody really believes Kojima can beat Moxley.

Ideally, this match should end with a video message from a bigger New Japan name calling out Moxley. I'm not confident that will happen. Then again, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if Moxley showed up in NXT UK to pick a fight with WALTER.

Paul Wight vs. QT Marshall - Formerly the Giant in WCW and the Big Show in WWE, Wight debuted with AEW earlier this year as a color commentator. QT and his goons were picking on Wight's broadcast partner Tony Schiavone when Wight intervened, setting up this match.

I was actually kind of into the idea of this until Marshall showed photos of Wight's recent hip surgery. Up to that point, they'd managed to keep me from noticing if Wight could move okay, and I was willing to accept he could do a basic squash match without a problem. But now I just assume he's broken down and he'll need a lot of smoke and mirrors to do even a simple match. Maybe that's the plan, to get me to lower my expectations and be pleasantly surprised. I sure hope it works out.

I'm about 95% sure Wight clobbers QT and just wins handily. There's a chance QT's squad pulls enough shenanigans to get a bullshit win, but I'm not sure what the point would be.

21-woman Casino Battle Royale - This is AEW's funky concept for a gauntlet battle royale. Five women start the match, and then every five minutes another wave of five enters; the 21st entrant gets to come out alone. Eliminations can occur at any time, by exiting the ring over the top rope to the floor. The last woman left after the others have been eliminated is declared the winner, and receives a future title match against the AEW women's champion.

AEW has announced 20 participants: Abadon, Anna Jay, Big Swole, Diamante, Emi Sakura, Hikaru Shida, Jade Cargill, Jamie Hayter, Kiera Hogan, KiLynn King, Leyla Hirsch, Nyla Rose, Penelope Ford, Rebel, Red Velvet, Riho, Skye Blue (a late substitution for Julia Hart), Tay Conti, The Bunny, Thunder Rosa.

The 21st spot has been left open for a surprise. Ruby Soho (formerly Ruby Riott in WWE) is widely expected to join AEW, and this would be a sensible spot for that to happen. But there are other women who could potentially debut here as a swerve.

I always want to pick the surprise entrant to win these things, but they really haven't done all that well in AEW battle royales. I could see them giving the win to, say, Big Swole, and just having Britt Baker beat her a few weeks later on Dynamite. Or Thunder Rosa could win to set up a major program for the next pay-per-view. They have a lot of options, which makes it hard to predict but fun to watch.

Orange Cassidy & Chuck Taylor & Wheeler YUTA & Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy vs. Matt Hardy & Marq Quen & Isiah Kassidy & Jack Evans & Angelico - This is booked for the pre-show. Hardy's heel group has been feuding with most of the midcard babyfaces for months. I don't expect this match will blow off the feud, but it'd be nice if it did so we could move on to something else. Orange's team should probably win.

#aew #all out #cm punk #darby allin #kenny omega #christian cage #the young bucks #lucha bros #cannot *believe* i managed to get this done

3 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years

Text

“God God – Whose Hand Was I Holding?”: the Scariest Sentences Ever Written, Selected by Top Horror Authors

https://ift.tt/3kHWU1Y

Many people have a very intimate relationship with books. And horror books can get under your skin like no other medium, whether you’re peering at a scary novel under the covers as a youngster or devouring new or classic horror as a grown up. Good horror writing sticks with you.

For Halloween we’ve attempted to round up some of the scariest sentences ever written – and who better to ask for their recommendations than some of the finest horror writers and editors around? We asked some of our favourite experts to tell us the line that scared them most and why. Any suggestions of your own? Let us know in the comments.

To Serve Man by Damon Knight

Scariest sentence: “It’s a cookbook,” he said.

Is there a better whammy of an end line than this? Ten to one you’ll know the story that precedes it: Seemingly benevolent aliens, the Kanamit, arrive on earth, promising peace and prosperity. The aliens are as good as their word, and start whisking “lucky” humans off to their planet for a “ten year exchange programme”. A U.N translator, who (rightly) thinks this is all too good to be true, sets about translating the aliens’ favourite book, which, from its title, “To Serve Man,” is assumed to be an innocent handbook. It ain’t (see the last line). The story and its funny/bleak ending has haunted me since I first read it as a ten-year-old, way too young to consider that it could be read as an allegory about the horrors of colonialism. Back then all I could think about were the people the Kanamit had lured aboard their ships, unaware that they were destined for the table (or the Kanamit version of Masterchef). It still gives me chills. – Sarah Lotz author of Missing Person out now from Hodder.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

Scariest sentence: “I have no mouth. And I must scream.”

If I tell you the name of this Harlan Ellison story, it’ll give away the last line… “I have no mouth. And I must scream.” I remember when I first read that ending, only to find myself caught in a loop where those two sentences kept echoing through my head. Reading it again right now, it’s still hard not to pinch my lips as tightly together as possible and try giving the ol’ lungs a good bellow. Still sends shivers down my spine. – Clay McLeod Chapman, author of The Remaking, out now from Quirk Books

Movies

How Hulu’s Books of Blood Movie Taps The Mind of Clive Barker

By Don Kaye

Cabal by Clive Barker

Scariest Sentence: “She knew what men afraid, and afraid of their fear, were capable of.“

According to some criminologists, the root cause of many violent acts isn’t anger but fear. Fear of rejection, of failure, of abandonment, of loss. In this early novel by Barker, the link between fear and violence is only subtly hinted at–which makes it all the more frightening. He alludes to the heroine’s personal history with violent men, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks. – Andrew Schaffer, author of Secret Santa, out 10 November from Quirk Books

The Sibling by Adam Hall

Scariest sentence: “He’s put the clown in her room,” Lorraine said quietly.

As a species, our goal is to keep clowns out of our bedrooms and living spaces and yet here’s some monster deliberately inserting a clown into someone’s room, ignoring the fact that since at least the dawn of time clowns have been mankind’s natural predator. The resigned tone of that “quietly” really drives home the horror because clearly this is not the first time. – Grady Hendrix.

Squelch, John Halkn

Scariest sentence: “It still doesn’t make sense to me. Moths attack sweaters and fly around light bulbs. They don’t devour humans.”

It doesn’t make sense to me, either, but if moths have stopped attacking our clothing and started attacking our bodies then count me out. I’m done. – Grady Hendrix.

Night of the Crabs by Guy N. Smith

Scariest sentence:“What a beautiful night,” Pat remarked, as they passed alongside the barbed-wire fence which enclosed War Department property. “If only we didn’t have to worry about giant crabs.”

Sometimes you just wish you lived in a simpler world. – Grady Hendrix.

The Farm by Richard Haigh

Scariest sentence: “The pigs,” then her control snapped. “Look, they’re coming out,” she shrieked. “Oh, sweet Christ. The pigs!!”

Every time I leave the safety of New York City I fully expect this to be the last sentence I hear as I am devoured by angry livestock. – Grady Hendrix, author of The Final Girl Support Group out July 2021 from Titan Books

The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum

Scariest sentence: “I’m not going to tell you about this. I refuse to.”

That’s half of chapter 42 from Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door. And The Girl Next Door is a novel that, just as Joe R. Lansdale says at the head of his story “The Night They Missed the Horror Show,” doesn’t flinch. So, if the narrator is looking back to having seen something that even he can’t put on the page, then . . . how bad must it be, right? I’ve talked to other readers of this novel and they’ve told me about chapter 42 as if the narrator actually fleshes it all out for us, and they (myself as well) all flinch as if traumatized from having had to read those words. Except they never did read the words of what actually happened. But that’s Jack Ketchum, for you. He doesn’t need to actually say it on the page to get it into our head. Worse, this is a chapter that never leaves you, either. Worse than that, you kind of become complicit just for reading it. – Stephen Graham Jones author of The Only Good Indians, out now.

In the Hills, the Cities by Clive Barker

Scariest sentence: “In Popolac a kind of peace reigned. Instead of a frenzy of panic there was a numbness, a sheep-like acceptance of the world as it was. Locked in their positions, strapped, roped and harnessed to each other in a living system that allowed for no single voice to be louder than any other, nor any back to labour less than its neighbour’s, they let an insane consensus replace the tranquil voice of reason.”

As a much younger person, reading this story for the first time, I was overtaken by awe at the imagery; not unlike Mick who chooses to hitch a ride on the impossible doomed giant made of city denizens. Re-reading it now decades later, the story and these lines fill me with bone-deep dread. Like the referee/car thief and Mick’s lover Judd, I cannot bear to view the inevitable fall. – Paul Tremblay, author of Survivor Song, out now from Titan Books.

Home Burial by Robert Frost

Scariest sentences: ”Don’t – don’t go. Don’t carry it to someone else this time. Tell me about it if it’s something human.”

The line here that I consider scary is ‘Tell me about it if it’s something human.’ Because of the implication that people may carry within them things that are not human. In this case, I imagine the ‘it’ that may not be human to be something so deeply felt and instinctive that it is pre-language – and so pre-human, almost. Something primordial that requires translation or mediation – and perhaps in that, change or diminishment – in order to be sensible to another sentient being. It is the suggestion that maybe our most fundamental aspects or thoughts – our most important feelings – cannot be properly communicated that is terrifying, to me. It makes me think of each person as a dark pool, with their lived experience and true feelings becoming manifest at the bottom, and the communication of these things to others being only what is visible through the surface of the water, from above.

As much as I do believe that all communication is imperfect, and that it is difficult for people to know each other truly, I take comfort from two things – one is love, which is, I think, a kind of deep, fundamental knowing and acceptance of each other. The other is fiction, which (in my opinion) is often an attempt at translating ideas and feelings that, coming from our deepest places, we don’t otherwise have the language for. – Tom Fletcher, author The Witch Bottle, out 12 November from Jo Fletcher Books.

The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Scariest sentence: “You’re the herd now, Jacky.”

I read King & Straub’s The Talisman when I was 15, at a time in my life when I’d said goodbye to one bunch of friends and hello to another, and the friendship between Jack Sawyer and his werewolf friend Wolf resonated strongly with me. In Wolf’s culture werewolves are farmers and fiercely protective of their herds who they protect by locking themselves away every month. The problem is that Jack and Wolf are on the run and Wolf’s change is coming upon him, and there’s nowhere to shut Wolf away. So when Wolf turns to Jack with blazing eyes and says this, it’s simultaneously a promise of protection (‘I will die for you’) but also a warning (‘I will tear you to pieces’). The chill with which Jack realises that his best friend loves him but will probably kill him anyway has stayed with me ever since. – James Brogden, author of Bone Harvest, out now from Titan Books

Movies

I Am Legend: Why Can’t Matheson’s Masterpiece be Done Justice on Film?

By Dan Hajducky

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Scariest sentence: “The watch had stopped”

I think a lot of us can relate to the feeling of getting caught up in our work and letting the hours pass us by without much thought. In the case of Robert Neville, the central figure in Richard Matheson’s seminal I Am Legend, getting lost in the hours is the most horrific thing he could possibly do. The simple four-word-sentence that has scared me more than any other in all my days of reading is “The watch had stopped.” If you’ve read the story, I’m sure you remember how those words burned into you. – Rachel Autumn Deering, editor of Hex Life, out in paperback from Titan Books on November 10 2020

One for the Road by Stephen King

Scariest sentence: “And I think she’s still waiting for her good-night kiss.”

I’m not easily scared, but occasionally I get a real chill up my spine. Shirley Jackson did that with the last line of The Haunting of Hill House. But if we’re talking about one line that lingers, that still makes me remember the way it felt the very first time I read it, I have to go with the last line in Stephen King’s short story “One for the Road,” from his collection Night Shift. It’s a vampire story, a sequel to ’Salem’s Lot, about a family whose car is trapped in a blizzard on the outskirts of a town plagued by vampires. That last line is “And I think she’s still waiting for her good-night kiss.” There, I just felt it again. That shiver. All these years later, it still works on me. – Christopher Golden, editor of Hex Life, out in paperback from Titan Books on November 10 2020

The New Mother by Lucy Clifford

Scariest sentence: “Now and then, when the darkness has fallen and the night is still, hand in hand Blue-Eyes and the Turkey creep up near to the home in which they once were so happy, and with beating hearts they watch and listen; sometimes a blinding flash comes through the window, and they know it is the light from the new mother’s glass eyes, or they hear a strange muffled noise, and they know it is the sound of her wooden tail as she drags it along the floor.”

The scariest sentence ever is from The New Mother by Lucy Clifford. The strange tone of the writing, the situation in the story and the fact that the new mother is not in any way human… – David Quantick, author of Night Train, out now from Titan Books

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Scariest sentence: “God God! Whose hand was I holding?”

This scene perfectly conjures the feeling of being afraid in the night. Distance, time, sound – all the natural laws of the daylight world grow slippery and loosen. It’s a unique sensation – no other fear has the visceral, unhinged quality of cold terror in the dark. Shirley Jackson puts all of this on the page – she takes Eleanor and the reader into that same heightened, accelerated state, she makes our hearts race, she makes us feel alone, disoriented, lost in the night with only a friend’s hand to cling to. And then she saves us – the lights come on, our heart rate slows, and the rational world seems to settle into its proper channel again. And at last Eleanor sees: the friend whose comforting hand she held in the dark has been on the other side of the room all along. – Catriona Ward is the author of The Last House on Needless Street out 18th March 2021 from Viper Books

The Haunting Of Hill House: How the Extraordinary Episode 6 was Made

By Louisa Mellor

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Scariest sentence: “God god – whose hand was I holding?”

It’s from a scene about two-thirds of the way through the novel. Eleanor and Theodora go to sleep in their adjacent beds in one of the many bedrooms in Hill House. They sleep with the lights on because of previous frightening incidents. But Eleanor wakes in the night to find the room plunged in darkness, and hears an eerie voice muttering from the next room. The darkness and the frightening sounds go on endlessly, and Eleanor is filled with a mounting sense of dread. She reaches out blindly for Theodora’s hand and holds on tight.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

But when the lights finally come back on, Theodora is several feet away, sitting up in her own bed, too far away for Eleanor to have touched her. So the hand she was holding belonged to someone or something else. It’s a brilliantly oblique bit of horror – the realisation that the monster was right alongside you, inside your guard – and every adaptation of the novel references it in some form or other. But I don’t think you can beat Jackson’s chilling, deadpan prose. – Mike Carey author of The Trials of Koli, out now from Orbit Books

Books

Who Was The Haunting of Hill House Author Shirley Jackson?

By Don Kaye

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Scariest sentence: “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

I’ll be surprised if no one else has picked these sentences, although maybe not, because I’m blatantly cheating for choosing the entire first paragraph of The Haunting of Hill House. It is a classic of looming dread, and it’s probably generated more commentary and criticism than any other first paragraph in a horror novel. I love it. – Ellen Datlow, editor of the Best Horror of the Year annual series.

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

Scariest sentence: “It was so dark it was like nothing was there in the room but us. Only the nothing was actually something because it filled my eyes and lungs and it sat on my shoulders.”

Paul Tremblay perfectly captures our universal fear of the dark in these two lines from A Head Full of Ghosts. That made the flesh on my skull crawl when I read it. The wording is simple but so effective: in one, two, three increasingly creepy instances Paul transforms what’s simply darkness into the tangible, the intimately dangerous… as darkness tends to do. – Thomas Olde Heuvalt, author Hex and Echo, forthcoming from Nightfire in 2021

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

Scariest sentence: The Black Meat is like a tainted cheese, overpoweringly delicious and nauseating so that the eaters eat and vomit and eat again until they fall exhausted.

I read Naked Lunch in high school and it was a mind-destroyer. Thankfully, it is also a mind rebuilder. You can turn to any page and find sentences that bewildered, disoriented, horrified, and excited me. So that’s exactly what I just did: I opened the book randomly to page 55 and found one. Disgusting, delightful decadence! – Daniel Kraus, coauthor with George A. Romero of The Living Dead, out now from Tor Books.

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

Scariest sentence: “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.“

It’s ‘illimitable’ that does it for me, though the capitalisations and the against-the-advice-of-grammarians superfluous first and second usages of ‘and’ add quite a bit. That first ‘And’ – the one your teacher told you not to start a sentence with – is a pointed touch and does a lot of work, indicating that all the bad stuff in the rest of the sentence is a consequence of what’s gone before in the story … which, this season, seems like the most pointed tale of mystery and imagination ever written. – Kim Newman author Anno Dracula 1999 Daikaiju out now from Titan Books.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Scariest sentence: “In the unending, crashing second before the car hurled into the tree she thought clearly, Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why don’t they stop me?”

Discussions of the prose of Shirley Jackson’s monumental The Haunting of Hill House tend to focus on its famous opening paragraph. Certainly the beginnings of both the novel’s first and second chapters offer a wealth of riches for scholarly consideration, rhetorical analysis. Yet it’s this long sentence from the novel’s second-to-last paragraph that comes to mind if I’m asked to name the most frightening line in the book. Indeed, it seems to me one of the most frightening sentences of any novel or story I’ve read. Obviously, there are lines whose immediate impact is greater, which have a more substantial visceral effect (Clive Barker’s fiction is rife with these). But I’m not sure any echo in quite the same way. At this moment in Jackson’s narrative, Eleanor Vance is being made to leave Hill House, the dwelling with whose structure her personality has become entangled and confused. Seemingly unwilling to be separated from the place, she steers her car straight toward an enormous tree at a curve in the driveway and steps on the gas. “I am really doing it,” she thinks, “I am doing this all by myself, now, at last.” This would be an awful enough end for Jackson’s protagonist, but with the sentence that follows and finishes the paragraph, she gives the screw a final, diabolical turn. Eleanor experiences a moment of clarity, which tells us that her thoughts of just a line before were not clear. She is not accelerating toward the tree of her own volition—or, not only of her own volition. Something else is at play here, some other factor. Is it the “whatever” Jackson has described walking in Hill House, the unspecified, (possibly) supernatural force (which might be any one of a number of ghosts, or an aggregate of those ghosts, or the house itself, brought to occult life by the peculiarities of its design)? Or is it some submerged part of Eleanor—guilt at her role in her mother’s death, or anger at her expulsion from the group brought to Hill House to study it? She doesn’t know, and she is trapped in her unknowing, as the final instant of her life stretches on and on, “unending.” Her ultimate motivation obscure to her, all she can do is wonder why no one is stopping her. With hideous irony, the power, the control Eleanor was celebrating a moment prior turns on her, her freedom becoming the freedom of death. The line passes as quickly as the crash it describes, and in its speed, it’s easy to miss everything going on it. To say it’s another example of Jackson’s skill as a writer feels somehow inadequate, as it doesn’t get at the way the sentence braids claustrophobia, terror, and confusion. It’s the kind of writing that haunts you in quiet moments, long after flashier, louder lines have faded into silence. It’s the kind of writing that reminds you of the horror story’s particular power, its reach and its resonance. – John Langan, author of The Fisherman, out now.

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Scariest sentence: “Sometimes dead is better.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Nobody says this line better than that guy in the first Pet Sematary movie who used to play Herman Munster. Although John Lithgow did his best. King struck on an age-old wisdom when he showed us the folly of trying to bring people back once they’re gone. Just as WW. Jacobs did in The Monkey’s Paw and Shelley demonstrated (albeit piecemeal) in Frankenstein. You’ve got to be careful what you wish for. Sometimes, dead really is better, and far less likely to come back and stab you to death with a scalpel. C.S. O’Cinneide is the author of Petra’s Ghost, out now from Titan Books.

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Scariest sentence: “Darling,” it said

This line has to be read in the context of an entire, brilliant novel that went before. It’s really not something I want to give away, because of spoilers, but if you’ve read this one, even hearing the final line again should send a shiver through you. The writer was at the top of his game – and that’s saying something – and it remains his most terrifying novel. Here’s the line: “Darling,” it said. – Tim Lebbon, author of Eden, out now from Titan Books

The post “God God – Whose Hand Was I Holding?”: the Scariest Sentences Ever Written, Selected by Top Horror Authors appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/31T5a7G

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

2 notes · View notes

spacetimewithstuartgary · 6 years

Photo

SPACE PROBE TO PLUNGE INTO FIERY CORONA OF THE SUN On August 11, NASA plans to launch Earth’s first spacecraft to venture inside the orbits of Venus and Mercury to touch the very edge of the Sun’s fiery corona. Outfitted with instruments designed and built at the University of California, Berkeley, the Parker Solar Probe will achieve a goal that space scientists have dreamed about for decades: to get close enough to the Sun to learn how the turbulent surface we see from Earth dumps its energy into the corona and heats it to nearly 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, spawning the solar wind that continually bombards our planet. “This is a piece of heliophysics science we all really wanted for a long time, since the 1950s,” said Stuart Bale, a UC Berkeley professor of physics, former director of the campus’s Space Sciences Laboratory and one of four principal investigators for the instruments aboard the mission. “For me personally, I’ve been working on the probe since it was approved in 2010, but I really spent a large part of my career getting ready for it.” The solar probe will travel faster than any spacecraft in history, at its peak reaching 430,000 miles per hour, and will be only four-and-a-half solar diameters, or 3.8 million miles, above the solar surface at its closet approach to the Sun around 2024. The probe is equipped with a heat shield to protect its sensors from the Sun’s heat, which could reach 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly hot enough to melt steel. At this distance, the solar probe will be within a region where electrons and ionized atoms -- mostly hydrogen ions, or protons, and helium ions, called alpha particles -- are accelerated and shot out toward the planets at high speed. When these ions, called the solar wind, hit Earth, they interact with Earth’s magnetic fields and generate the northern and southern lights as well as storms in the outermost atmosphere that interfere with radio communications and satellite operations. Accelerated to higher speeds, so-called “solar energetic” particles can pose a hazard to astronauts. Scientists still do not know how the solar wind ions are accelerated, or why the ions and electrons in the corona are so much hotter, about 1.7 million degrees Fahrenheit, than the surface of the Sun, which is a relatively cool 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The Parker Solar Probe could answer those questions, and help scientists on Earth forecast the large eruptions from the Sun that pose the greatest peril to our spacecraft and communications systems. Follow the Magnetic Fields FIELDS, a suite of instruments built at UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory, is one of four instrument packages aboard the probe. With the help of a six-foot boom projecting in the direction the spacecraft is moving, it will measure the electric and magnetic fields in the corona, which will tell scientists the total energy streaming outward from the Sun. These measurements will test one theory of how the Sun heats the corona: by jiggling the magnetic field lines. The strong magnetic field of the Sun stretches out far into space, but the magnetic field lines are anchored in surface regions that constantly move around because of convection below, like boiling water. The constant movement of the base of the magnetic field lines creates waves that travel outward along the lines, just as jiggling the end of a long rope sends waves to the other end. Somehow, these so-called Alfvén waves accelerate particles to high speeds and fling them into space. “If the wave-driven model is correct, then I think our measurements will be the fundamental measurements on the mission,” Bale said. The other popular theory is that tiny flares called nanoflares all over the surface of the Sun produce magnetic fields that cross, reconnect and fling disconnected loops of magnetic field into space, accelerating ions along with it. This was first proposed in 1987 by Eugene Parker, after whom the solar probe is named. Now 91, Parker predicted the existence of and named the solar wind in the 1950s. Radio antennas on the FIELDS package will look for radio waves created by nanoflares, which have yet to be detected, while another package of instruments, SWEAP (Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons), will record the speed of solar wind electrons, protons and alpha particles as they whiz by the probe. Correlating nanoflare or microflare activity with the flux of particles streaming from the Sun could confirm the magnetic reconnection theory. SWEAP is led by the University of Michigan and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, though much of the instrument was designed and built at the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley. Two other instrument packages will be aboard the probe. WISPR, the Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, was built at the Naval Research Laboratory and will capture visible-light images of the Sun’s corona directly in front of the orbiting probe. ISOIS [with a dot in the center of the O] (pronounced E-sis) -- short for Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun, and including O [with a dot in the center], the symbol for the Sun, in its acronym -- is led by Princeton University and will measure the energy and identity of energized electrons and ions, including ions heavier that hydrogen and helium, in order to find out how they are sometimes accelerated to nearly light speed close to the Sun. Together, these instruments should be able to record the speed-up of the solar wind from subsonic to supersonic and the birth of the highest-energy solar particles. “Plasma physics is really hard to study in the laboratory,” said Bale, who focuses on the role of magnetic fields and ionized plasma in space, in particular around stars like the Sun. “Sticking a spacecraft right in the hot plasma makes an ideal laboratory.” Looping Around Venus This probe is the chance of a lifetime for Bale. Though his team will deploy booms and test instrument functions one day after launch, most of the instruments will then be turned off and won’t begin taking real measurements of the corona until the probe reaches its first close approach to the Sun in November. After a loop around Venus to slow down, the probe will get the closest any spacecraft has ever been to the Sun, a distance from the center of the Sun equal to 36 times the Sun’s radius (36 solar radii). Venus orbits at 155 solar radii and Mercury at 83 solar radii. Over the next six years, the probe will loop around Venus six more times, gradually working its way to approximately 9.8 solar radii from the center of the Sun. There, it will be well within the corona, at the outer edge of which particles exceed the speed of sound -- the Alfvén speed, which is about 200 miles per second -- and no longer call the Sun home. “The goal of the mission is to get inside that transition region, so we get into the real corona where the flow is sub-Alfvénic,” Bale said. “We think that boundary is at about 15 solar radii, so we probably won’t start hitting it until 2021.” Once inside the corona, the probe may see the jiggling magnetic field lines, or Alfvén waves, bouncing back and forth between the Sun’s surface and the edge of the corona, a turbulent cascade that may be the feedback loop that accelerates particles to the high speeds seen in the solar wind. “In early December, I am counting on having that first pass of data at 35 solar radii, and I am sure it will be revolutionary. There will be great new stuff in there, from what we know about previous missions,” Bale said. Over its seven-year mission lifetime, the probe will dip into the Sun’s inner atmosphere 24 times. As part of NASA’s outreach efforts, more than 1.1 million people submitted their names to be recorded on a memory card that will accompany the spacecraft around the Sun. The probe is scheduled for launch in the early hours of Monday, Aug. 11, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with an upper stage to boost it out of Earth orbit toward Venus. Since the mission was approved in 2010, some 40 to 50 people at Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory have worked on the solar probe. Through the formal end of the mission in 2026, and including subsequent data analysis, UC Berkeley will have received about $100 million out of a total of $1.5 billion spend on the mission. IMAGE....The surface of the sun, or photosphere, is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but the region through which the solar probe flies, the corona, is 2 million degrees. Scientists want to know why.

#space #science #Astronomy #astrophysics #Sun #parker solar probe #physics #NASA

58 notes · View notes

frontproofmedia · 3 years

Text

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: A Split Draw For Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

By Hector Franco

Follow @MrHector_Franco !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id))(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); Follow @Frontproofmedia!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id))(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

Published: July 22, 2021

This past weekend on July 17th at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, one of the most fascinating and significant bouts of the year took place for the undisputed Junior Middleweight championship between IBF/WBC/WBA and Ring Magazine champion Jermell Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KOs) and WBO champion Brian Castano (17-0-2, 12 KOs).

After 12 rounds of tense back and forth action, the fight was ruled a split draw, with the judges scoring the bout 114-113 (Steve Weisfeld) for Castano, 117-111 (Nelson Vazquez) for Charlo, and one final score of 114-114 (Tim Cheatham).

Ultimately, the fight for the undisputed Junior Middleweight crown ended up being one of the most disputed fights of 2021. The fight itself and how it came together represented what is positive about today’s era, but the aftermath took the spotlight, highlighting the negatives that have impacted boxing for years.

THE GOOD

Charlo-Castano was the seventh unification bout in the Junior Middleweight division since the turn of the century. The fight had lofty expectations as some of the unification bouts at 154 included Floyd Mayweather-Saul Alvarez, Oscar De La Hoya-Fernando Vargas, and arguably the most exciting in the division’s history in Felix Trinidad-Fernando Vargas.

The bout would also be the first undisputed championship bout at 154 since Ronald "Winky" Wright took on Shane Mosley in March 2004.

Charlo headed into the fight with Castano as the betting favorite and the better-known fighter holding victories over Austin Trout, Jeison Rosario, and Erickson Lubin. The Texas native’s only blemish on his record was a loss to Tony Harrison in 2018 that was avenged a year later.

The victory in the rematch against Harrison gave Charlo the distinction as a two-time WBC Junior Middleweight titleholder. The eighth-round knockout that Charlo scored over Rosario in September 2020 earned him the IBF, WBA, and Ring Magazine titles.

Castano, who hails from Argentina, was a much more accomplished amateur than Charlo winning the gold medal at the 2010 South American Games, holding wins over current unified Welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. and Middleweight contender Sergiy Derevyanchenko.

As a professional, Castano won the interim WBA Junior Middleweight title in 2016 that was later elevated to “regular” status. Arguably, Castano’s most significant fight before facing Charlo was against Erislandy Lara in 2019 in a fight that was ruled a draw.

Leading into the fight with Charlo, Castano won the WBO 154-pound title in a dominant victory over Brazil’s Patrick Teixeira.

When Charlo and Castano finally stepped in the ring against each other, it was an opportunity for Charlo to cement himself a spot in the Hall-of-Fame and for Castano to stamp himself as one of the best fighters to come out of Argentina.

The fight ended up living up to expectations, becoming one of the best fights of 2021, filled with momentum shifts and both men laying everything on the line in the championship rounds.

Castano was able to apply effective pressure throughout the bout, putting Charlo against the ropes landing right hands and left hooks during exchanges. The Argentinean’s defense was showcased, as he was able to block with his gloves a majority of Charlo’s punches.

The right hand, in particular, was set up numerous times by Castano, who showed patience in making sure that the punch landed accurately.

For Charlo, his best moments in the fight were when he was able to keep the fight in the center of the ring utilizing his jab. The two-time WBC Junior Middleweight champion out-landed his opponent 53 to 9 in total jabs landed, throwing more than 100 jabs than Castano.

The unified champion’s best rounds in the fight came in the second and 10th rounds, where he was able to hurt and visibly stun Castano with left hands during exchanges. Judge Steve Weisfeld, who scored the fight 114-113 for Castano, scored the 10th round 10-8 for Charlo.

Charlo’s stand in the 10th round after clearly losing the previous three was not only one of the highlights of the fight, but of his career.

For fans, that didn’t know who Castano was or were unfamiliar as to his skill level, this was quite the introduction. The Argentinean displayed skill coming forward while remaining defensively responsible.

On multiple viewings, the fight seems to favor Castano as many close rounds like the fifth, sixth, ninth, and 11th rounds, which at first looked like they could have been scored for Charlo, now favor the WBO titleholder. However, on the night of the fight, a draw felt like a fitting conclusion more than a satisfying one.

“Brian Castano is one hell of a better fighter than anyone gave him credit for, and he came to fight for his life Saturday,” Charlo said in a statement on his Instagram account. “If fights are scored as a whole, I landed the harder and better shots, but boxing isn’t scored that way. Boxing is scored round by round. I’ve always said to take a belt from a champion, you need to take the belt, and the judges felt neither of us did enough to take those other belts and ruled a draw.

“I don’t want to become undisputed by a narrow controversial decision. I want to make a statement. I didn’t do my part to get the KO, and as always, I will continue to learn and improve. When we run it back, just like I adjusted in Harrison II, there will be no doubt about the result.”

THE BAD

A great fight that is scored a draw deserves a rematch. Unfortunately, with the number of belts on the line in an undisputed match, there are bound to be mandatories for those titles.

Castano may have a mandatory defense against the WBO’s number one contender in Australia’s Tim Tszyu (19-0, 15 KOs).

Charlo, on his end, has two mandatories that could be forced. Former Charlo victim Erickson Lubin has earned a mandatory defense under the WBC, winning six fights in a row, including a sixth-round stoppage over Jeison Rosario since being stopped by Charlo in the first round in 2017.

Also, it has been reported that the IBF has ordered a mandatory defense for Charlo against Russia’s Bakhram Murtazaliev (19-0, 14 KOs). The Russian has been the mandatory for Charlo since November 2019 and has since fought on the undercard of events headlined by Charlo.

In the past, we have seen sanctioning bodies take a backseat to allow for unification bouts; however, with Charlo-Castano resulting in a draw without a rematch clause in place, it may result in fans having to wait for a rematch unless something can be negotiated.

“If they can work out, among them, and they can work out the mandatories, whatever they are,” stated Brian Castano’s manager Sebastian Contursi to Boxingscene.com “Because we don’t even know if we have a mandatory due for the WBO – we were so focused on this unification fight. But needless to say, you guys know that we would prefer unification like this and not any crappy mandatory here and there.

“That’s from my perspective. But it’s not like it’s a guaranteed rematch because of these things. You cannot guarantee a rematch because there’s four sanctioning bodies, with four different mandatories involved.”

THE UGLY

As is with numerous cases throughout boxing history, the headlining story in the aftermath of Charlo-Castano were the three judges who scored the bout.

The scorecard in particular that has garnered the most attention is that of Nelson Vazquez, who scored the fight for Charlo with a score of 117-111. Nelson only gave Castano rounds three, seven, and nine.

While all three judges scored the final three rounds for Charlo, Vasquez’s scorecard is perplexing. To only score three rounds for Castano is incompetent and should be investigated, as it doesn’t represent what took place inside the ring.

The scorecard falls in line with recent deplorable scorecards such as Carlos Sucre’s 117-111 for Juan Francisco Estrada in his rematch with Roman Gonzalez and Adalaide Byrd’s 118-110 scorecard for Saul Alvarez in his first encounter with Gennadiy Golovkin.

In a recent mailbag article on RingTV.com, Editor-in-Chief of Ring Magazine, Doug Fischer, brought up the fact that promoters are the ones that pay for the judges to perform their jobs as well as their travel and lodging. This, of course, can lead to a conflict of interest when one promoter promotes the house fighter and is paying the judges.

Judges are rarely interviewed by the media due to either lack of interest or availability. When a scorecard as terrible as Vasquez’s is provided, the judge should explain how they arrived at such a score.

Accountability for judges needs to be at the forefront of change in boxing. Not just for the betterment of the sport but for the sake of the two pugilists that step inside the ring and put their lives on the line.

(Featured Photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime)

#HF #Jermell Charlo #Brian Castano #Showtime Sports #Premier Boxing Champions

0 notes

anovel70 · 3 years

Text

2021 so far and goals

I just realized I never posted my goals for 2021 this year. Its been a flop and I’ve been wondering why. I guess this is why.

January: I was eagerly awaiting to go to Hawaii. There, I could escape my parents for the first time since 2016 and not have to worry about COVID as much. I said my final goodbyes to my hispanic friend and girlfriend before leaving, got a checkup with the doctor, and did my final tasks for the Florida project at work before leaving. In the middle of the month, I went to Hawaii and learned the ropes of my new tasks.

February: I learned that my coworkers in Hawaii weren’t the ideal coworkers. They were late, yelled at me, and embarrassed me in front of others. I felt belittled working with them and I didn’t like being made fun of. It was outdoors work and I didn’t like waiting for people. My concerns would often be put aside by the guy in charge, who made everyone’s lives easier but mine. In the middle of February, I started making friends through meetup. I went on hikes and played Spikeball for the first time. The last time I went on a hike was with my girlfriend last year, then back in New Zealand in 2015. I also studied for my actuary Exam 9 a little seriously.

March: Things got worse. My father and sister came over in the middle of the month, and I started getting into arguments with my friends. That’s ok, because my family took up a lot of my time and I didn’t want to ignore them. I just wished things ended on a better note. I had Baskin Robbins for my birthday. My family was required to stay inside for 10 days before leaving, so they helped me with stuff around my apartment that I used to take care of. They got annoying since they took up my space and my father complained there wasn’t enough food. I’m not the one that needs to do the shopping anymore.

April: Worst month. My mother came, my father left for a weekend and spent at least $2,000 of my own money and left the chores for my sister. On top of that, my sister shopped for food and had me drive around, which wasted 3 hours of my life, and this was on a Friday after work. I was hoping they would go shopping while I was at work so all I would have to do was pick them up from shopping, but they weren’t very considerate of me. I was the one that paid for their trip to Hawaii. I got to drive a Tesla while I was here, which was nice. However, there wasn’t anywhere convenient to charge it so my family had to wait at the mall for it to charge. My one friend in Hawaii joined me for a Tesla ride and got breakfast with me on my last week in Hawaii. I haven’t been in touch with him for a month, although there really isn’t any point. I also got injured at work, which gave my other coworkers more reason to suspect something is wrong with me. (When the guy in charge learned about this, he just laughed). In the goodbye party with my coworkers, I spent less than 20 minutes saying goodbye to everyone because my family had stuff they wanted to do, which took up my morning. They were lucky I even showed up at all. The next week at work, I got addicted to solving a puzzle at the Honolulu office, but I didn’t finish. While I was travelling back from Hawaii, I learned I won an award at work.

May: Coming back was terrible too. I had to keep in touch with my girlfriend, and Albany friends have been demanding to talk to me. I haven’t talked to my Albany friends since probably last December when I wished them a Merry Christmas. This month is still playing out, but right now, I have another Florida project at work, I’m talking to my girlfriend every day, and I’m studying for the PE exam and BC calculus for my sister. Going forward, I’m not sure how many layers of complexity I want in my life.

So basically, everyone and everything in Hawaii wanted to set me back.

Now for the rest of 2021. I have to help my sister with her BC calculus exam in June until I can actually take a break. I also have a Florida project, and I’m learning a new role at my company that I was supposed to learn last year. The projects are starting up and looks like I’ll hit the lottery on them.

I passed Exam 5 in December.

I have two major exams to study for: My PE and Exam 9. I have to take Exam 9 after the PE so the actuarial employers know what look for.

The rest of the year will most likely look like this:

June: Finish up helping out with BC Calculus. On top of this, we are using my Khan Academy account, which will get me closer to the Tesla badge. Except there’s no good way to farm Energy Points anymore since they got rid of the speed challenges. Once I finish BC Calculus, I’ll go back to work at least 2 times a week and start applying for actuary positions in states I don’t care about, like the western and southern ones. I just need to leave the bigger ones alone, like the east coast, Georgia, Florida, California, Texas, Nebraska, Oregon, Montana, or Washington. The goal is to pretend I’m interested then reject them.

July: Start phone and video interviews with actuary companies to see what the industry is like and what they’re looking for. Hook up with my girlfriend near the fourth of July weekend, like July 2 or July 9.

August: Go somewhere far with my girlfriend for our one year anniversary. Help my sister move into Cornell University and provide assistance to her math classes. Make calls for some assistance in getting recommendations for my PE Exam licensure.

September: Start communicating with my Ohio friend to figure out the best time to visit. Maybe it’ll be another long trip with my girlfriend in October. Definitely take 9/30 off since the past two 9/30 was a disaster.

October: Visit my Ohio friend and see him for the first time since 2004. Wow. Ramp up my studying for the PE Exam. I’ll start to obtain recommendations and hopefully get approval to take the exam.

November: I have no idea what I’m doing in this month.

December: I celebrate 3 years at my company. I guess I’ll keep studying for the PE exam.

I’ll know as time goes on, and I plan on posting monthly starting now. Hawaii just took too much time away from me.

0 notes