That’s just ridiculous—that’s a made-up fairy from Victorian and 20th century children’s media, not a “real” fairy from 19th-century and earlier folklore. Those look more or less like people, and you certainly wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a fairy and a solicitor at first glance. (I’m not aware of any traditions about fairies carrying pamphlets or cell phones, though.)
Yes, I was assuming that there was something about the fairy that made that obvious. (I was also assuming that for whatever reason I didn’t think I was hallucinating; though my suddenly developing that sort of hallucination might not be less likely than a walrus on my doorstep.)
It’s directly related. She made a website for the subject. I don’t know if it had a portion that was specifically set up in message board format but it had the same effect. Like minded people could communicate with each other. She left the website after a few years and handed it off to others. It morphed into the toxic community starting from that website.
I won’t presume to say there is someone for everyone. I will say that in my professional life I have seen some of the worst people in the worst circumstances and one thing they had in common was they all had mates/partners/spouses. Those in my life that have complained about not finding anyone tend to have unrealistic expectations for a partner. One old high school acquaintance fits the bill exactly. He is out of shape and looks sloppy. He dresses sloppy. He makes no effort to change. He’s been out of work or underemployed ever since he was fired from his dream career path for behavior many people warned him about. He probably still could have found someone except he has unrealistic expectations. He was constantly hitting on pretty waitresses that were up to 20 years younger than him. He required any woman who he dated to have no exes or children. Doable in your 20s. Much more difficult from your 40s and up. Now he’s had many medical issues exacerbated by being in bad physical condition and he’s bitter but still thinks he’s a catch. The incels I’ve met aren’t forced to be celibate because no one will date them. They are celibate because they think any woman they pick should automatically want them.
Are you telling me fairies from early folklore are not made up?
We have several friends who sometimes refer to themselves as fairies related to their occupations. Off the top of my head we know a:
Carpet fairy
Cake fairy
E.R. fairy
So, a fairy at the door would be quite possible. Walruses not so much.
Hey, if someone can call themselves a carpet fairy, I can call myself a computer walrus.
Goo goo ga joob.
There are people who think that some of those stories are derived from misinterpretations of earlier (and now long-gone) human or hominin populations. I have no idea whether there’s anything accurate in such theories.
Nope, those theories are deeply entwined with 19th-century racist theories of social evolution.
As for “not made up”—well, would you accept “not made up by the individuals who talked about them” ? Barrie made up tinkerbell, but fairies from folklore were just part of the general cultural baggage.
Ah. Didn’t realize that – I’m pretty sure that it didn’t show in the context of wherever I ran into them; I don’t remember what that was but it was something favorable to the people the stories were supposedly about, being driven out by annoying interlopers who weren’t their superiors but just lived in different ways – but people often pick things up out of their original context, and not all of them are as innocuous as they look at first glance.
The Good Idea Fairy is real. I’ve seen the results.
I think someone has been on tumblr?
I answered fairy, because I’m about a quarter mile from the beach. It’s plausible (though highly unlikely) that a walrus could make its way to my door. A fairy would astonish me.
My daughter the Tumblr habitué, tells me that the total captive population of walruses is no more than 133 and there are only thirteen walruses over three zoos in North America. They’re found in the wild only in the Arctic region. It starts seeming more plausible that a magical creature would show up at my door than that a walrus would.
However, to the best of our knowledge the total population of actual magical fairies in North America, and for that matter in the world, is zero.* So the walruses are still more likely.
[*For whatever reason, the back of my head is very unhappy with my having posted that statement.]
Some of those pantomime walrus suits look pretty good.
Nevertheless I opted for one in the poll as well.
I do miss movies that end with “The End”, and either no credits or a quick list of cast members instead of 10 minutes of credit roll, including “Honeywagon Driver”, whatever that is. (You know who hates that? Theater owners.)
I use half yogurt and half mayo for chicken, tuna, egg salads. They also get garlic and whatever herb I grab first (usually basil).
But they make me sad, because I’m waiting breathlessly to see who did the aerial filming.
What little actual dating I did was so long ago that I didn’t see any sense in voting. Plus which, it was pretty mixed; and often didn’t involve spending much of any money, because often both of us didn’t have any.