Meeting the Norse Gods in New York City

You came to New York City for college. You expected it to be different from home. But who could have expected this?

Odin is your college professor who speaks in a western drawl, who always wears black cowboy shirts and cowboy boots, who seems to relish looking out-of-place even in a city as diverse as New York. While your classmates whisper possible ways He lost his eye, no one dare asks Him how it really happened. After finals, He invites some of you to a dive bar near campus and buys drinks for everyone. He challenges you, a dangerous glint in His eye, to go shot for shot with Him. You know better to accept this challenge.

You meet Thor at a BLM march. He's the massive guy screaming down a fascist dickhead who dared show his face, but when you see Him again later, He's all smiles as He passes out snacks. He goes to a lot of these marches, He says - for black lives, yes, but also for immigrants, for women's rights, for gay rights. If the cops show up, He says He makes "a good human shield!" You're unsure if He's joking. His laughter is infectious either way.

Freyr shows up next, at the farmer's market in Union Square. His squash are the longest, His peaches the plumpest, His berries the most fragrant. "Try an apple," He urges you. It's the reddest apple you've ever seen, and when you bite into it the flavour explodes in your mouth and the juices dribble down your chin. "How much?" You ask Him. He asks you to pay Him in song.

You take a train to New England one day for a change of pace, and strike up a conversation with an old gruff fisherman in yellow coveralls. You help Him pull up a net of crabs and He teaches you a sea shanty, and offers to buy you a drink. It's only on the train ride back to the city, when you open up your wallet and find a $50 bill that definitely wasn't there before, that you realise this was Njörd.

Thor invites you to Pride, but you lose Him in the massive crowd, and in the chaos, your rainbow tutu gets torn. The most beautiful woman you've ever seen comes to the rescue with a sewing kit and some glitter, which She helps you apply to your body and face. She's looking at you as if you're the only person in the crowd, and when She smiles, you know it is Freyja. She dances with you, then lets a cute butch cut in. When you turn your head, She is gone, but you get a date with that cute butch for the coming Tuesday.

You meet Loki a week later. He's busking on the subway, doing magic tricks better suited to a Vegas stage than the 6-train. The kids on the subway love Jim. Somehow He swindles you out of $5, but you later find Him using all the money He got to buy a homeless man a hot meal. After this, Loki keeps showing up in the same places you go, a different face every time, but you always know it's Him. You resist His attempts at friendship for a long time, but within a year you'll count Him among your best friends.

You go, on a whim, to a BYOB knitting class. Frigga is the teacher. At this point you're not surprised by that. You've never been able to get the hang of knitting before, but with Her guidance, you have a scarf going in no time. The act of knitting a scarf makes you think of a beloved great aunt who used to knit and who died when you were in high school. You're so embarrassed when you start to cry, but Frigga holds you close and lets you cry against Her. She invites you and your girlfriend over for a home-cooked meal the next evening. You go and She's made your favourite comfort food. You are surprised to see your old college professor there.

You still refuse to go shot for shot with Him.

A Short, Public Letter to Sarah Winchester

To the woman who changed my life on this, the day of your death

Yes, I already sent a private letter to your house back in San Jose. I already did a small ancestor-venerating ceremony and lit a candle in your honour this morning, making my whole room smell like apples and cinnamon, which I think you would have liked. I have written about you, visited your grave, and discussed you with other former tour guides at your mansion who are now on the East Coast. But I still wish to honour you in cyber space, and there's no better day to do it, since we don't know your birthday and all.

You're, like, my hero.

You were strong in your convictions, braver than I think most people realise, smart and sharp and clever, and through all your tragedies kind. I aspire to be even half the woman you were. Working in your house gave me the confidence I needed to be successful on the East Coast. I don't even know if I would have had the courage to do so if not for your example. I definitely wouldn't have found my place in the National Park Service if not for the confidence I learned from you.

It hurts me that people still disrespect you so, that even people that have seen the beautiful home you worked so hard on somehow can't see - refuse to see - what an amazing beautiful soul you were. But I see it, Mrs. Winchester. And lots of other people see it, too. You are loved, even 95 years after your death.

It seems... not entirely appropriate to wish you a "happy death day" but I do hope that if there is an afterlife, that you are happy in it with William and Annie.

-Nym-

The Battle of Brooklyn

27 August 1776: The Battle of Brooklyn. Under command of General George Washington, American forces are ensconced on high ground. They expect British General Howe to order a headlong charge. Instead Howe orders several flanking maneouvres. The results are disastrous for the patriots. American forward positions are completely overrun. An extraordinary counter attack by the Maryland 400 allows most of the American advance guard to escape to Brooklyn Heights and rejoin the main body of Washington's forces.

This was the first time many of the American patriots realised just what they were up against - they were quite literally outgunned and outmanned, by the thousands. It was only under the cover of a miraculous thick fog that Washington was able to evacuate his troops from Brooklyn, and it was very shortly after this that the patriots lost New York City altogether - from 1776 to Evacuation Day in 1783 it remained in British loyalist hands, leading to the death of Nathan Hale. General Washington and his American soldiers would go on to wage battle for seven more years after that fateful 1776 August battle...

27 August 2017: I go to Green-Wood Cemetery, home to Battle Hill which saw some of the heaviest bloodshed during this battle, to watch a re-enactment of the Battle of Brooklyn. I mean, come on - a Revolutionary War battle at a historic cemetery? That hits like at least seven points on my checklist, I am so there!