and I'm more than willing to offer myself, who knows where that might lead

Just this little bit:

[07:33] Ithildin Telperion (mondi.beaumont): I promise - no, I swear ! - now I'm done with my "Fantasy Faire 2021" photos - at least for this year - Fantasy Faire 2021 is over, and all involved look back on the past 3 weeks with one laughing and one crying eye .

So much fun, work, diligence, stress, laughing, crying, remembering, fundraising, supporting, broadening horizons - and much more. All this is and was only possible because everyone pulled and is pulling together.

The Fantasy Faire is actually an old-fashioned, outdated ideal concept - because what counts here is togetherness and responsibility towards others, and not, as is so often the case nowadays, just putting oneself in the right light. So Fairelanders are perhaps a little naïve, a little old-fashioned - but that's exactly what makes us so strong. Taking the extra step when the other person is already limping... reaching out when someone can't reach anymore, listening carefully when others become quiet, giving a smile even when we might feel like crying.

[07:33] Ithildin Telperion (mondi.beaumont): Many thanks to each and every one of you for everything you have done and achieved. From the organizers, the sponsors and idea providers, to the designers, world builders, the tirelessly working team on all different levels, the chroniclers, the photographers, the idea providers, the hidden surprise chickens - to every single visitor.
From the organizers, the sponsors and idea providers, to the designers, world builders, the tirelessly working team on all different levels, the chroniclers, the photographers, the idea providers, the hidden surprise chickens - to every single visitor.

Thank you for your donations, your criticism, your loving words, your compliments, your time, your energy - your help, your feedback and your straightforwardness.

Stay healthy and take good care of yourselves! All my love from the bottom of my heart, *Mondi* https://www.flickr.com/photos/28469653@N05/

Here, here.

And...this:

[11:48] Fantasy Faire 2021 ~ Memorial Candle: The inscription reads: Miss you so much, Sumie.

I do. But the candle's in Steamopolis, now. That helps.

Next year, I'm buying one for Alastair.

In radically different (and likely NSFW) news--a beloved story of the invention of vibrators may be wrong. Totally not kidding--apparently Rachel Maines thought she was onto something, or at least thought she could get a book out of it, but her "research" into the origins of Victorian electrical stimulation devices utterly fails to hold up.

Maines says now that her book was intended merely to present a "hypothesis", and was never intended to be taken seriously, but--if one reads the book? She never once presents it as a working theory, she presents it as fact. Hmm.

On the other hand, now we do know there was a link between Victorian electrical stimulation devices and human sexuality--the catch is, the devices were marketed to men.

(That article also mentions another "myth", only one I'd never heard of--that Cleopatra "invented" the vibrator by filling a gourd with bees. Now, on the surface, this sounds patently ridiculous, but we live in an era where Gwyneth Paltrow suggested a beauty treatment that involves massive amounts of bee stings, and at least one woman has died from this recommendation, so...really, who knows?)