Podcasts about Partridge

Welcome to Part 32 of our series with Dr. John G Turner, based on his new book Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet.In this episode, Dr. Turner response directly to modern claims denying Joseph Smith's plural marriage to Sarah Ann Whitney. We revisit Chapter 26 of his book, carefully examining the historical record surrounding the 1842 letter often associated with Sarah Ann Whitney, the language of sealing and “fulness of blessings,” the land deed, and the broader documentary context of Nauvoo-era plural marriage.We also engage with alternative interpretations, including arguments that question whether the letter refers to polygamy at all. Drawing on Turner's scholarship as well as Karen Hyatt's analysis, this discussion models how historians weight evidence, examine primary sources, and wrestle with ambiguity. What constitutes strong documentation? How do historians interpret silence, denials, and later public statements? And how should we think about the broader context of Joseph Smith's practice of plural marriage in Nauvoo?Along the way, we explore the legal crisis surrounding the alleged assassination attempt on Lilburn Boggs, the Nauvoo writ of habeas corpus, the Sarah Ann Whitney Letter, Public denials and private sealings, sham marriages and the case of Joseph Kingsbury, documentation involving the Partridge sisters and why serious historical inquiry requires both skepticism and careful contextualization.We invite you to read Chapter 26 alongside this discussion and let us know your thoughts in the comments. To read Karen Hyatt's interpretation download her free book here: https://josephtoldthetruth.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Woe-Unto-You-Scribes.pdfTo watch Karen Hyatt's video, “The Worst Love Letter… EVER!” click here.Let us know in the comments how you interpret the evidence.Please purchase the book ⁠here⁠.To support this series please donate ⁠here⁠. One half of all donations will go to Dr. Turner for as long as he is participating in the series.___________________YouTubeAt Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals.  Our overall mission is to: 1. Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology2. Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions

Sign up now to access the daily Notre Dame news and recruiting scoop on the Four Horsemen Lounge and all of the premium Notre Dame stories on IrishIllustrated.com!Get your first month for only $1.00 -- sign up today. What's on your mind?Talk about it at the Four Horseman Lounge Sign up for our FREE Notre Dame Newsletter Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Two Turtle Doves, or Dildos?Based on a post by SandyMarl, in 4 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.Dana returned to the kitchen as Orlando was finishing drying the stemware. She leaned back against the counter, crossing her arms in front of her tits as she tried to give a confident look, though a drunken squirrel was racing around inside her chest.Orlando folded the dish towel, set it down as he stepped to her side. He reached around her waist and pulled her close, brushing her hair back, he whispered into her ear, “Strange as it is, there are some people who have a difficult time accepting good things that are given to them. You have been given a set of good and close girlfriends Dana.” Orlando placed his fingertips at the base of her jaw, “Your pulse is beating hard, I sense that you are understandably nervous to find yourself in a position to accept or reject a special, intimate gift that has been tenderly offered to you.” Continuing to whisper into her ear in a mesmerizing, deep masculine voice. “It is my hope that you will be accepting of all the pleasures and dreams which are before you.”Dana gulped, wanting some words to come out of her throat, but nothing happened. She wasn’t sure if those stuck words ever made it onto her tongue what they would say to Orlando’s proposition. She liked the idea that they could be a ‘yes’, but something held her back from giving an answer. She let her emotions bubble hot inside of her, waiting until they were ready to come out in their own time; she wished and hoped they’d be an accepting 'yes’, but she wasn’t sure.The roaming fingers of her cooing partridge traced down the side of her neck, parting her collar from her prickly, heated skin. His fingers found her bra strap and followed it lower along the pathway that brought his touch to the slope of her tit. With one hand, the tips of his fingers ran along the upper rim of her black lacy cup while the other hand undid the top button of her blouse. Orlando breathed his warm, moist breath into her ear. “You’ve changed into something lacy since I’ve arrived,” was Orlando’s observation. “You have not given me a spoken answer as to whether you’ll accept an intimate gift, but I have gotten your subtle answer by my discovery of your hidden charms. You are a charming woman,” Orlando breathed into her ear in a husky voice, and then gave her a small kiss on the cheek.Dana let out a small moan as she unconsciously tipped her head back, exposing her throat and lifting her tits as Orlando teased her flesh as he continued with his light touch running along the contours of her bra. Her gift lover recognized the moan, the short breaths, the exposed throat and the visible flush of her chest as the tell-tale signs of a woman drifting into seduction. Dana didn’t have to speak; she had already extended an invitation in the wordless language of lovers for Orlando to take her wherever he wanted to go.Orlando worked deliberately, unfastening each button as he pressed his warm lips to her throat followed by tiny, wet touches with the tip of his tongue. Dana let his attention wash over her skin, floating on warm waves that rippled through her insides. With the bottom button undone, he rolled his fingers around her cups, petting her ribs before setting his fingers between her fingers, lifting their entwined hands and guiding Dana out of the kitchen, floating toward the back of the house.Lifting her unfastened shirt off her shoulders, Orlando tossed it over a chair in the corner and then pressed her with his palm, forcing Dana to fall back onto the bed. Dana landed on her back with a giggle, loving the feeling of being desired and taken. She placed her hands behind her head, accentuating her tits covered in the gossamer black fabric of her cups. She relished watching Orlando, waiting to see his next move.Orlando reached into the side pocket of his jacket, tossing a small bottle onto the bed. “What’s that?” asked Dana from her reclining pin-up girl pose.“Consider it 'partridge oil,’ my little chickpea. Some of us more experienced partridges find that a dab or two on a partridge’s pecker makes for smoother night’s nesting in our chosen pear tree.”Dana broke into a broad grin, “I never knew partridges were such considerate birds,” she said.“Not all partridges are, some will leave droppings on your car. But when a partridge finds an attractive limb or two, we partridges are known to be considerate nesters.” Orlando tossed his jacket over the back of the corner chair and then stripped off his shirt, shoes and socks.“Now, I believe this old, experienced partridge has found a pair of attractive limbs that interest me a great deal.” Orlando crawled onto the bed, unsnapped Dana’s pants and pulled them off as she lifted her lower limbs skyward. Orlando admired her matching lacy black panties for a moment before he swooped in and removed the pair just as he’d done with her pants. “Ah, there is a pretty little partridge nest at the top of a pair of attractive limbs,” announced Orlando, more to himself than to Dana.Dana felt shy, but at the same time pleased to be the object of a man’s intimate attention for the first time in a long time. She lay on the bed, her cunny and pubic hair exposed to Orlando’s admiring eyes while still trussed up in her bra. She squirmed over to retrieve the bottle of lubricant that Orlando had tossed onto the quilt. She shook it in front of the shirtless man lying next to her, teasing him she asked, “Don’t you have to molt or something before this 'partridge oil’ can be applied to your pecker?” She was pleased to see the fabric at his crotch stretched over a nice, rigid form.“I’m getting the urge to roost, but I’d enjoy a little more playtime.” Orlando tucked his targeted pear tree under the heavy quilt, slipping under to join her. He pulled her over to cuddle next to him. He slipped her straps off her shoulders, massaging and nibbling at her back as he unhooked the last of her garments, discarding it over the side of the bed. He rolled her onto her back, cupping and squeezing her tits as he kissed her arms, working his lips to the top of her tit, bunching her tit in his firm grip as he pushed her erect nipple into his mouth. He inhaled her exquisitely sensitive titty tip with a vigorous suction that filled his hot, wet mouth. His tongue darted and circled around her puffed up bits, sending sparks shooting into her clit. He worked her fleshy mounds over with his mouth, drooling over her melons and adding to the juicy wet sensation she was getting between her thighs.As he lapped at her nipples, caressing, licking, squeezing and mashing her mammaries with his right hand, his left hand traveled across her belly, inching its way lower on her body. Dana opened herself, thrilled to once again feel the pleasure of a man intimately handling all of her excited girl parts. Her cunny was more than moist, her breathing shallow and her brain swimming in a warm fog. Dana arched her hips as Orlando’s hand petted her bush; her little princess ached to once again be embraced by a dancing partner. It has been so long. Her warm, buttery inner parts were feeling more wonderful than she ever remembered.Orlando’s fingers passed over her dewy vulva with a firm pressure. His hand made a tight circular grinding motion before he spread her puffy lips open, probing along her slick walls, climbing up her canyon. Dana held her breath, she wanted to squeal before he got to her clit, but she held her silence with closed eyes, letting the anticipation of first contact build in her lungs and in her loins.Orlando’s fingertip crept up the underside of her rigid clit, painting her in her own sex juices. He circled her aroused bud, triggering a flash of blue electricity that shot under her skin to her toes. Dana’s hips bucked; her ass arched as she pushed her sex trigger into her lover’s fingers. He ran a couple of his fingers into her slippery cunny, drawing them up to her clit, bathing her in her own nectar. Dana burst into a series of brusque chirps, half-screaming, half-moaning as she was seized by convulsing and shaking legs. She choked out in shallow breaths, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh god, oh fuck. Oh, fucking fuck.”Orlando let her convulsions subside. Dana covered her eyes with her hands, gasping for breath as his fingers rested, half filling her pulsing cunny. “I could be wrong – but I’m not; you have a lot more in the tank my little chickpea.” Orlando stuffed his fingers further up inside her cunt as if he was taking the measure of her tank. He pulled out slowly, making sure he tickled her g-spot as he withdrew from her throbbing void.“I might have forgotten about the next element in your Secret Santa swap tonight, except it is so fucking uncomfortable right now. I’m afraid you’ll have to perform the final plucking of your evening’s gift partridge. I will need the skilled digits of my beautiful assistant; would you please remove my remaining apparel. I have been instructed by the one who sent me, to inform you that there is a special package waiting for you underneath.”With the glee of a young girl selecting her wrapped package from under the Christmas tree, Dana rolled on her side, unzipping Orlando’s white trousers and pulling them off. His erection was obvious under his holiday themed underwear, yet it looked as if his underwear was packing more than expected. Curious about his cock and whatever extras accompanied his package, she tugged his last bit of wrapping away to reveal the full package. Dana whooped in surprise, and laughed a hearty laugh, admiring the red bow adding a festive cheer to his stiff prick. “Oh my! Is this all for me?” she giggled.Orlando shrugged, “I suggest you read the label. If it’s not addressed to you, I’ve made a terrible mistake.”Dana picked up the card hanging from the red bow, dangling below Orlando’s Christmas balls: “On the First Day of Christmas, My True Friend gave to me, A Partridge in a Pear Tree. Dear Dana, I hope you enjoy the Christmas package I’ve selected for you. I’ve decided to exchange more than cookies after our usual Christmas Cookie Exchange. Dana, Merry Fucking Christmas! – McNally.”Dana let a little squeak escape, “This is all so very naughty.”Orlando thrust his hips toward Dana, “Yes it is. Would you do me a favor and unknot me?” he said, shaking his boner in front of her to get her to remove the bow and gift card from his masculine package.Dana’s eyes flashed with a mischievous grin, she wiggled her fingers in excitement before blushing as she reached to the base of the proud cock, lifting the elastic band at the base to un-decorate Orlando’s extended organ.“Thank you,” was his response as his partridge cock was now as free as a bird. He searched the folds of the bed cover, looking to find the bottle of partridge pecker oil he’d tossed onto the bed earlier. Dana found it under her bottom, showing her find to Orlando.“May I?” was her question as she managed a sheepish look up into Orlando’s eyes.“The pleasure would be all mine,” he replied.Dana reached out to grab his manhandle, coaxing him into bed. She crawled over him, letting her tits hang down, dangling in his face. She dropped her shoulders, let one nipple land on his lips, he gave her a lick, and then she plopped her other nipple to his lips, receiving a second exhilarating lick. She scooted down, grasping the base of his cock, about to apply a dab of lube, when she thought better of her idea.She wrapped her fingers around his shaft, marveling at the inflexible piece of anatomy, trying to recall the fun of having a man’s stiff cock penetrating her. It had been a while since she had even imagined enjoying the pleasure of a good fucking. She admired his towering erection, abandoned her last bit of hesitation holding her back and opened her lips and took him in deep. She moved her hands to his nuts, caressed them as she swabbed the hot pink shaft with her tongue. She sucked and stroked him, bringing him to maximum stiffness without a hint of gagging, feeling proud of her accomplishment.Orlando held her head tight between his hands as she bobbed up and down in slow, long strokes with her lips. Orlando’s hands reached under her, grabbing a handful of titties in each hand, massaging her boobs and making sure she had her plush nips squeezed between his fingers just the right amount of rough, stimulating pleasure.Dana was getting lathered up again, her lady parts were plump and wet with the thrill of sucking a thick cock and the powerful handling of her tits, making her want that cock to leave her lips and tongue and find its way down to her labia and clit. Dana let Orlando’s erection pull out of her mouth with a satisfying plop. She closed her eyes and made the deep humming sound of an aroused woman wanting and waiting to be taken.Orlando positioned his hand under her hanging udders, holding them in his solid grasp; he tilted her onto her back. Picking up the bottle of lube, he poured a small stream over her steaming cunt, rubbing his shaft with a second slathering. Dana’s humming picked up in pitch as the cold lube oil fell on her labia, but Orlando’s warm hands worked it into her soft girly flesh and made her feel happy and aroused to be pampered with floral scented oil on her feminine folds.Orlando had a well-oiled tool after a couple of strokes. He was eager to climb into his pear tree after great stimulating oral sex and the delight of handling Dana’s attractive and suitably large and pendulous tits. He spread Dana’s legs, pushing her knees wide after oiling her inner thighs. With a little bounce he crow-hopped between Dana’s outstretched legs, landing on the gaping fruit of his pear tree. His partridge flew into her, surprising her with his sudden furious first fuck. He was thick and forced her apart, she felt stuffed; startled at the filling sensation, surprised at the penetration and swoopy with the undulating, gripping response of her unpracticed sex muscles to Orlando’s perching inside her cunt.Orlando gripped her hips, Dana’s legs pointed up as he pounded her with scooping, hungry thrusts of his hips, poking, prodding, pushing his pecker deeper into her ravenous nether regions. Her screams began with his first humping thrust; each blow between her legs brought a corresponding scream, he was the hammer, she was the anvil. The hammer hit her with shuddering force, the anvil of her sex rang out with each blow in an echoing scream of unbridled pleasure. She was being pounded into a form of malleable feminine flesh as her lover worked her over.Dana had been fucked many times before, she and Sander had made love, mad love, lazy love, hungry love and yet this was new for her. She let each throbbing thrust push her higher. She let Orlando’s prick hammer her hard, pushing her to that orgasmic edge, an edge that was always a mystery. Dana never knew what was over the edge, at least not until she had been pushed over it and was falling into its abyss, filled with swirling clouds and tumbling waves of passion. She gave herself away, letting Orlando push her to the edge.She was hanging at the edge of her orgasm, she felt her lover’s muscles tighten along his lean body, his breathing was labored, her desire was to feel him cum inside her. She wanted to give herself to him. In giving herself up to his explosive ejaculation, she would be blasted into deep space. The lovers would be swept away together in a perfect climax.Dana tensed in response to the man fucking her as he strained to gather his energy like a coiled spring planted deep inside her sex chamber. With a throaty groan, Orlando let his seed burst from his loins, flooding Dana with white hot fluid. She felt his release. His energy tripped her delicately balanced desire. Orlando’s hot splash burst against the back of her vibrating inner hollow, exploding out through her lungs, rattling her pelvis as she shook and collapsed at its seductive power. The heat of her explosion radiated through all her muscles, warping the dimensions of her bedroom.Orlando rolled off her, pulling the heavy quilt over the two of them. He pulled Dana close to him, spooning with her as he buried his nose in her hair, letting his hand rest on her tit as dreams of sugar plums danced in their heads as they snuggled into a relaxed sleep like a contented partridge in a sweet pear tree.December’s late sunrise was filtering through the blinds when Dana opened her eyes at Orlando’s touch on her bare back. He ran his hand over her skin, rubbing the small of her back as she rolled over on her stomach. Waking up to a man’s roaming hands was a forgotten pleasure for Dana. Her night’s partner massaged her rump as she purred. Orlando gave her a light smack across her ass, whispering, “You have a beautiful pear-shaped ass, fresh and firm.” He bent over and took a tiny nip at her flank, Dana flinched, then he kissed it all better.“I regret that I have an appointment for later this morning. Please excuse me, but I will take my leave after a wonderful experience.” Dana watched him dress from under a wad of sheets and blankets.“Mr. Partridge?” she called as he moved toward the bedroom door, Orlando smiled and turned toward the nude woman lying in bed.“Yes?” he asked in a jaunty tone.“Tell McNally, 'Have yourself a Merry Fucking Christmas to one and to all’, would you?”Orlando chuckled, “That sounds like an inside joke among The Chix. I’ll leave that one up to you to deliver that message, my little chickpea.” Orlando let himself out of the house. Two Turtle DovesDana was reluctant to rise out of bed; she wished she could linger under the covers with a lover all day. But she was resigned to the fact that the day had to move forward. She locked the door, put on a pot of coffee and made her bed. Her phone pinged. She went to find it and red the incoming text.It was from Annie, 'Clear your calendar this afternoon girl. I’ll be delivering a holiday surprise package to your house. You will need to be at home to receive it!’ Dana’s first thought was, how sweet of Annie.She was expecting a visit from Annie when the doorbell rang mid-afternoon. Dana was surprised to see Nelson on her doorstep. “Is Annie with you?” Dana asked with a quizzical look and a realization that she was experiencing a flash of deja vu all over again.Nelson stepped into the house carrying a small gift bag and handed Dana a scroll tied with a white ribbon. “What’s this?” Dana asked as she cocked her head, taking the scroll from Nelson. “This is all so mysterious - again,” she said with her eyes and smile flashing in obvious enjoyment of the unfolding mystery in her entry hall. Dana ran her eyes up and down the broad, well-toned frame of the dark-haired man whom she had known as a friend for many years.Dana unfurled the scroll, feeling a hot flush ignite her face as she red Annie’s words while her complexion blushed to contrast with the scroll&rsquo

Two Turtle Doves, or Dildos?Based on a post by SandyMarl, in 4 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.Dana returned to the kitchen as Orlando was finishing drying the stemware. She leaned back against the counter, crossing her arms in front of her tits as she tried to give a confident look, though a drunken squirrel was racing around inside her chest.Orlando folded the dish towel, set it down as he stepped to her side. He reached around her waist and pulled her close, brushing her hair back, he whispered into her ear, “Strange as it is, there are some people who have a difficult time accepting good things that are given to them. You have been given a set of good and close girlfriends Dana.” Orlando placed his fingertips at the base of her jaw, “Your pulse is beating hard, I sense that you are understandably nervous to find yourself in a position to accept or reject a special, intimate gift that has been tenderly offered to you.” Continuing to whisper into her ear in a mesmerizing, deep masculine voice. “It is my hope that you will be accepting of all the pleasures and dreams which are before you.”Dana gulped, wanting some words to come out of her throat, but nothing happened. She wasn’t sure if those stuck words ever made it onto her tongue what they would say to Orlando’s proposition. She liked the idea that they could be a ‘yes’, but something held her back from giving an answer. She let her emotions bubble hot inside of her, waiting until they were ready to come out in their own time; she wished and hoped they’d be an accepting 'yes’, but she wasn’t sure.The roaming fingers of her cooing partridge traced down the side of her neck, parting her collar from her prickly, heated skin. His fingers found her bra strap and followed it lower along the pathway that brought his touch to the slope of her tit. With one hand, the tips of his fingers ran along the upper rim of her black lacy cup while the other hand undid the top button of her blouse. Orlando breathed his warm, moist breath into her ear. “You’ve changed into something lacy since I’ve arrived,” was Orlando’s observation. “You have not given me a spoken answer as to whether you’ll accept an intimate gift, but I have gotten your subtle answer by my discovery of your hidden charms. You are a charming woman,” Orlando breathed into her ear in a husky voice, and then gave her a small kiss on the cheek.Dana let out a small moan as she unconsciously tipped her head back, exposing her throat and lifting her tits as Orlando teased her flesh as he continued with his light touch running along the contours of her bra. Her gift lover recognized the moan, the short breaths, the exposed throat and the visible flush of her chest as the tell-tale signs of a woman drifting into seduction. Dana didn’t have to speak; she had already extended an invitation in the wordless language of lovers for Orlando to take her wherever he wanted to go.Orlando worked deliberately, unfastening each button as he pressed his warm lips to her throat followed by tiny, wet touches with the tip of his tongue. Dana let his attention wash over her skin, floating on warm waves that rippled through her insides. With the bottom button undone, he rolled his fingers around her cups, petting her ribs before setting his fingers between her fingers, lifting their entwined hands and guiding Dana out of the kitchen, floating toward the back of the house.Lifting her unfastened shirt off her shoulders, Orlando tossed it over a chair in the corner and then pressed her with his palm, forcing Dana to fall back onto the bed. Dana landed on her back with a giggle, loving the feeling of being desired and taken. She placed her hands behind her head, accentuating her tits covered in the gossamer black fabric of her cups. She relished watching Orlando, waiting to see his next move.Orlando reached into the side pocket of his jacket, tossing a small bottle onto the bed. “What’s that?” asked Dana from her reclining pin-up girl pose.“Consider it 'partridge oil,’ my little chickpea. Some of us more experienced partridges find that a dab or two on a partridge’s pecker makes for smoother night’s nesting in our chosen pear tree.”Dana broke into a broad grin, “I never knew partridges were such considerate birds,” she said.“Not all partridges are, some will leave droppings on your car. But when a partridge finds an attractive limb or two, we partridges are known to be considerate nesters.” Orlando tossed his jacket over the back of the corner chair and then stripped off his shirt, shoes and socks.“Now, I believe this old, experienced partridge has found a pair of attractive limbs that interest me a great deal.” Orlando crawled onto the bed, unsnapped Dana’s pants and pulled them off as she lifted her lower limbs skyward. Orlando admired her matching lacy black panties for a moment before he swooped in and removed the pair just as he’d done with her pants. “Ah, there is a pretty little partridge nest at the top of a pair of attractive limbs,” announced Orlando, more to himself than to Dana.Dana felt shy, but at the same time pleased to be the object of a man’s intimate attention for the first time in a long time. She lay on the bed, her cunny and pubic hair exposed to Orlando’s admiring eyes while still trussed up in her bra. She squirmed over to retrieve the bottle of lubricant that Orlando had tossed onto the quilt. She shook it in front of the shirtless man lying next to her, teasing him she asked, “Don’t you have to molt or something before this 'partridge oil’ can be applied to your pecker?” She was pleased to see the fabric at his crotch stretched over a nice, rigid form.“I’m getting the urge to roost, but I’d enjoy a little more playtime.” Orlando tucked his targeted pear tree under the heavy quilt, slipping under to join her. He pulled her over to cuddle next to him. He slipped her straps off her shoulders, massaging and nibbling at her back as he unhooked the last of her garments, discarding it over the side of the bed. He rolled her onto her back, cupping and squeezing her tits as he kissed her arms, working his lips to the top of her tit, bunching her tit in his firm grip as he pushed her erect nipple into his mouth. He inhaled her exquisitely sensitive titty tip with a vigorous suction that filled his hot, wet mouth. His tongue darted and circled around her puffed up bits, sending sparks shooting into her clit. He worked her fleshy mounds over with his mouth, drooling over her melons and adding to the juicy wet sensation she was getting between her thighs.As he lapped at her nipples, caressing, licking, squeezing and mashing her mammaries with his right hand, his left hand traveled across her belly, inching its way lower on her body. Dana opened herself, thrilled to once again feel the pleasure of a man intimately handling all of her excited girl parts. Her cunny was more than moist, her breathing shallow and her brain swimming in a warm fog. Dana arched her hips as Orlando’s hand petted her bush; her little princess ached to once again be embraced by a dancing partner. It has been so long. Her warm, buttery inner parts were feeling more wonderful than she ever remembered.Orlando’s fingers passed over her dewy vulva with a firm pressure. His hand made a tight circular grinding motion before he spread her puffy lips open, probing along her slick walls, climbing up her canyon. Dana held her breath, she wanted to squeal before he got to her clit, but she held her silence with closed eyes, letting the anticipation of first contact build in her lungs and in her loins.Orlando’s fingertip crept up the underside of her rigid clit, painting her in her own sex juices. He circled her aroused bud, triggering a flash of blue electricity that shot under her skin to her toes. Dana’s hips bucked; her ass arched as she pushed her sex trigger into her lover’s fingers. He ran a couple of his fingers into her slippery cunny, drawing them up to her clit, bathing her in her own nectar. Dana burst into a series of brusque chirps, half-screaming, half-moaning as she was seized by convulsing and shaking legs. She choked out in shallow breaths, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh god, oh fuck. Oh, fucking fuck.”Orlando let her convulsions subside. Dana covered her eyes with her hands, gasping for breath as his fingers rested, half filling her pulsing cunny. “I could be wrong – but I’m not; you have a lot more in the tank my little chickpea.” Orlando stuffed his fingers further up inside her cunt as if he was taking the measure of her tank. He pulled out slowly, making sure he tickled her g-spot as he withdrew from her throbbing void.“I might have forgotten about the next element in your Secret Santa swap tonight, except it is so fucking uncomfortable right now. I’m afraid you’ll have to perform the final plucking of your evening’s gift partridge. I will need the skilled digits of my beautiful assistant; would you please remove my remaining apparel. I have been instructed by the one who sent me, to inform you that there is a special package waiting for you underneath.”With the glee of a young girl selecting her wrapped package from under the Christmas tree, Dana rolled on her side, unzipping Orlando’s white trousers and pulling them off. His erection was obvious under his holiday themed underwear, yet it looked as if his underwear was packing more than expected. Curious about his cock and whatever extras accompanied his package, she tugged his last bit of wrapping away to reveal the full package. Dana whooped in surprise, and laughed a hearty laugh, admiring the red bow adding a festive cheer to his stiff prick. “Oh my! Is this all for me?” she giggled.Orlando shrugged, “I suggest you read the label. If it’s not addressed to you, I’ve made a terrible mistake.”Dana picked up the card hanging from the red bow, dangling below Orlando’s Christmas balls: “On the First Day of Christmas, My True Friend gave to me, A Partridge in a Pear Tree. Dear Dana, I hope you enjoy the Christmas package I’ve selected for you. I’ve decided to exchange more than cookies after our usual Christmas Cookie Exchange. Dana, Merry Fucking Christmas! – McNally.”Dana let a little squeak escape, “This is all so very naughty.”Orlando thrust his hips toward Dana, “Yes it is. Would you do me a favor and unknot me?” he said, shaking his boner in front of her to get her to remove the bow and gift card from his masculine package.Dana’s eyes flashed with a mischievous grin, she wiggled her fingers in excitement before blushing as she reached to the base of the proud cock, lifting the elastic band at the base to un-decorate Orlando’s extended organ.“Thank you,” was his response as his partridge cock was now as free as a bird. He searched the folds of the bed cover, looking to find the bottle of partridge pecker oil he’d tossed onto the bed earlier. Dana found it under her bottom, showing her find to Orlando.“May I?” was her question as she managed a sheepish look up into Orlando’s eyes.“The pleasure would be all mine,” he replied.Dana reached out to grab his manhandle, coaxing him into bed. She crawled over him, letting her tits hang down, dangling in his face. She dropped her shoulders, let one nipple land on his lips, he gave her a lick, and then she plopped her other nipple to his lips, receiving a second exhilarating lick. She scooted down, grasping the base of his cock, about to apply a dab of lube, when she thought better of her idea.She wrapped her fingers around his shaft, marveling at the inflexible piece of anatomy, trying to recall the fun of having a man’s stiff cock penetrating her. It had been a while since she had even imagined enjoying the pleasure of a good fucking. She admired his towering erection, abandoned her last bit of hesitation holding her back and opened her lips and took him in deep. She moved her hands to his nuts, caressed them as she swabbed the hot pink shaft with her tongue. She sucked and stroked him, bringing him to maximum stiffness without a hint of gagging, feeling proud of her accomplishment.Orlando held her head tight between his hands as she bobbed up and down in slow, long strokes with her lips. Orlando’s hands reached under her, grabbing a handful of titties in each hand, massaging her boobs and making sure she had her plush nips squeezed between his fingers just the right amount of rough, stimulating pleasure.Dana was getting lathered up again, her lady parts were plump and wet with the thrill of sucking a thick cock and the powerful handling of her tits, making her want that cock to leave her lips and tongue and find its way down to her labia and clit. Dana let Orlando’s erection pull out of her mouth with a satisfying plop. She closed her eyes and made the deep humming sound of an aroused woman wanting and waiting to be taken.Orlando positioned his hand under her hanging udders, holding them in his solid grasp; he tilted her onto her back. Picking up the bottle of lube, he poured a small stream over her steaming cunt, rubbing his shaft with a second slathering. Dana’s humming picked up in pitch as the cold lube oil fell on her labia, but Orlando’s warm hands worked it into her soft girly flesh and made her feel happy and aroused to be pampered with floral scented oil on her feminine folds.Orlando had a well-oiled tool after a couple of strokes. He was eager to climb into his pear tree after great stimulating oral sex and the delight of handling Dana’s attractive and suitably large and pendulous tits. He spread Dana’s legs, pushing her knees wide after oiling her inner thighs. With a little bounce he crow-hopped between Dana’s outstretched legs, landing on the gaping fruit of his pear tree. His partridge flew into her, surprising her with his sudden furious first fuck. He was thick and forced her apart, she felt stuffed; startled at the filling sensation, surprised at the penetration and swoopy with the undulating, gripping response of her unpracticed sex muscles to Orlando’s perching inside her cunt.Orlando gripped her hips, Dana’s legs pointed up as he pounded her with scooping, hungry thrusts of his hips, poking, prodding, pushing his pecker deeper into her ravenous nether regions. Her screams began with his first humping thrust; each blow between her legs brought a corresponding scream, he was the hammer, she was the anvil. The hammer hit her with shuddering force, the anvil of her sex rang out with each blow in an echoing scream of unbridled pleasure. She was being pounded into a form of malleable feminine flesh as her lover worked her over.Dana had been fucked many times before, she and Sander had made love, mad love, lazy love, hungry love and yet this was new for her. She let each throbbing thrust push her higher. She let Orlando’s prick hammer her hard, pushing her to that orgasmic edge, an edge that was always a mystery. Dana never knew what was over the edge, at least not until she had been pushed over it and was falling into its abyss, filled with swirling clouds and tumbling waves of passion. She gave herself away, letting Orlando push her to the edge.She was hanging at the edge of her orgasm, she felt her lover’s muscles tighten along his lean body, his breathing was labored, her desire was to feel him cum inside her. She wanted to give herself to him. In giving herself up to his explosive ejaculation, she would be blasted into deep space. The lovers would be swept away together in a perfect climax.Dana tensed in response to the man fucking her as he strained to gather his energy like a coiled spring planted deep inside her sex chamber. With a throaty groan, Orlando let his seed burst from his loins, flooding Dana with white hot fluid. She felt his release. His energy tripped her delicately balanced desire. Orlando’s hot splash burst against the back of her vibrating inner hollow, exploding out through her lungs, rattling her pelvis as she shook and collapsed at its seductive power. The heat of her explosion radiated through all her muscles, warping the dimensions of her bedroom.Orlando rolled off her, pulling the heavy quilt over the two of them. He pulled Dana close to him, spooning with her as he buried his nose in her hair, letting his hand rest on her tit as dreams of sugar plums danced in their heads as they snuggled into a relaxed sleep like a contented partridge in a sweet pear tree.December’s late sunrise was filtering through the blinds when Dana opened her eyes at Orlando’s touch on her bare back. He ran his hand over her skin, rubbing the small of her back as she rolled over on her stomach. Waking up to a man’s roaming hands was a forgotten pleasure for Dana. Her night’s partner massaged her rump as she purred. Orlando gave her a light smack across her ass, whispering, “You have a beautiful pear-shaped ass, fresh and firm.” He bent over and took a tiny nip at her flank, Dana flinched, then he kissed it all better.“I regret that I have an appointment for later this morning. Please excuse me, but I will take my leave after a wonderful experience.” Dana watched him dress from under a wad of sheets and blankets.“Mr. Partridge?” she called as he moved toward the bedroom door, Orlando smiled and turned toward the nude woman lying in bed.“Yes?” he asked in a jaunty tone.“Tell McNally, 'Have yourself a Merry Fucking Christmas to one and to all’, would you?”Orlando chuckled, “That sounds like an inside joke among The Chix. I’ll leave that one up to you to deliver that message, my little chickpea.” Orlando let himself out of the house. Two Turtle DovesDana was reluctant to rise out of bed; she wished she could linger under the covers with a lover all day. But she was resigned to the fact that the day had to move forward. She locked the door, put on a pot of coffee and made her bed. Her phone pinged. She went to find it and red the incoming text.It was from Annie, 'Clear your calendar this afternoon girl. I’ll be delivering a holiday surprise package to your house. You will need to be at home to receive it!’ Dana’s first thought was, how sweet of Annie.She was expecting a visit from Annie when the doorbell rang mid-afternoon. Dana was surprised to see Nelson on her doorstep. “Is Annie with you?” Dana asked with a quizzical look and a realization that she was experiencing a flash of deja vu all over again.Nelson stepped into the house carrying a small gift bag and handed Dana a scroll tied with a white ribbon. “What’s this?” Dana asked as she cocked her head, taking the scroll from Nelson. “This is all so mysterious - again,” she said with her eyes and smile flashing in obvious enjoyment of the unfolding mystery in her entry hall. Dana ran her eyes up and down the broad, well-toned frame of the dark-haired man whom she had known as a friend for many years.Dana unfurled the scroll, feeling a hot flush ignite her face as she red Annie’s words while her complexion blushed to contrast with the scroll&rsquo

Two Turtle Doves, or Dildos?Based on a post by SandyMarl, in 4 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.Dana returned to the kitchen as Orlando was finishing drying the stemware. She leaned back against the counter, crossing her arms in front of her tits as she tried to give a confident look, though a drunken squirrel was racing around inside her chest.Orlando folded the dish towel, set it down as he stepped to her side. He reached around her waist and pulled her close, brushing her hair back, he whispered into her ear, “Strange as it is, there are some people who have a difficult time accepting good things that are given to them. You have been given a set of good and close girlfriends Dana.” Orlando placed his fingertips at the base of her jaw, “Your pulse is beating hard, I sense that you are understandably nervous to find yourself in a position to accept or reject a special, intimate gift that has been tenderly offered to you.” Continuing to whisper into her ear in a mesmerizing, deep masculine voice. “It is my hope that you will be accepting of all the pleasures and dreams which are before you.”Dana gulped, wanting some words to come out of her throat, but nothing happened. She wasn’t sure if those stuck words ever made it onto her tongue what they would say to Orlando’s proposition. She liked the idea that they could be a ‘yes’, but something held her back from giving an answer. She let her emotions bubble hot inside of her, waiting until they were ready to come out in their own time; she wished and hoped they’d be an accepting 'yes’, but she wasn’t sure.The roaming fingers of her cooing partridge traced down the side of her neck, parting her collar from her prickly, heated skin. His fingers found her bra strap and followed it lower along the pathway that brought his touch to the slope of her tit. With one hand, the tips of his fingers ran along the upper rim of her black lacy cup while the other hand undid the top button of her blouse. Orlando breathed his warm, moist breath into her ear. “You’ve changed into something lacy since I’ve arrived,” was Orlando’s observation. “You have not given me a spoken answer as to whether you’ll accept an intimate gift, but I have gotten your subtle answer by my discovery of your hidden charms. You are a charming woman,” Orlando breathed into her ear in a husky voice, and then gave her a small kiss on the cheek.Dana let out a small moan as she unconsciously tipped her head back, exposing her throat and lifting her tits as Orlando teased her flesh as he continued with his light touch running along the contours of her bra. Her gift lover recognized the moan, the short breaths, the exposed throat and the visible flush of her chest as the tell-tale signs of a woman drifting into seduction. Dana didn’t have to speak; she had already extended an invitation in the wordless language of lovers for Orlando to take her wherever he wanted to go.Orlando worked deliberately, unfastening each button as he pressed his warm lips to her throat followed by tiny, wet touches with the tip of his tongue. Dana let his attention wash over her skin, floating on warm waves that rippled through her insides. With the bottom button undone, he rolled his fingers around her cups, petting her ribs before setting his fingers between her fingers, lifting their entwined hands and guiding Dana out of the kitchen, floating toward the back of the house.Lifting her unfastened shirt off her shoulders, Orlando tossed it over a chair in the corner and then pressed her with his palm, forcing Dana to fall back onto the bed. Dana landed on her back with a giggle, loving the feeling of being desired and taken. She placed her hands behind her head, accentuating her tits covered in the gossamer black fabric of her cups. She relished watching Orlando, waiting to see his next move.Orlando reached into the side pocket of his jacket, tossing a small bottle onto the bed. “What’s that?” asked Dana from her reclining pin-up girl pose.“Consider it 'partridge oil,’ my little chickpea. Some of us more experienced partridges find that a dab or two on a partridge’s pecker makes for smoother night’s nesting in our chosen pear tree.”Dana broke into a broad grin, “I never knew partridges were such considerate birds,” she said.“Not all partridges are, some will leave droppings on your car. But when a partridge finds an attractive limb or two, we partridges are known to be considerate nesters.” Orlando tossed his jacket over the back of the corner chair and then stripped off his shirt, shoes and socks.“Now, I believe this old, experienced partridge has found a pair of attractive limbs that interest me a great deal.” Orlando crawled onto the bed, unsnapped Dana’s pants and pulled them off as she lifted her lower limbs skyward. Orlando admired her matching lacy black panties for a moment before he swooped in and removed the pair just as he’d done with her pants. “Ah, there is a pretty little partridge nest at the top of a pair of attractive limbs,” announced Orlando, more to himself than to Dana.Dana felt shy, but at the same time pleased to be the object of a man’s intimate attention for the first time in a long time. She lay on the bed, her cunny and pubic hair exposed to Orlando’s admiring eyes while still trussed up in her bra. She squirmed over to retrieve the bottle of lubricant that Orlando had tossed onto the quilt. She shook it in front of the shirtless man lying next to her, teasing him she asked, “Don’t you have to molt or something before this 'partridge oil’ can be applied to your pecker?” She was pleased to see the fabric at his crotch stretched over a nice, rigid form.“I’m getting the urge to roost, but I’d enjoy a little more playtime.” Orlando tucked his targeted pear tree under the heavy quilt, slipping under to join her. He pulled her over to cuddle next to him. He slipped her straps off her shoulders, massaging and nibbling at her back as he unhooked the last of her garments, discarding it over the side of the bed. He rolled her onto her back, cupping and squeezing her tits as he kissed her arms, working his lips to the top of her tit, bunching her tit in his firm grip as he pushed her erect nipple into his mouth. He inhaled her exquisitely sensitive titty tip with a vigorous suction that filled his hot, wet mouth. His tongue darted and circled around her puffed up bits, sending sparks shooting into her clit. He worked her fleshy mounds over with his mouth, drooling over her melons and adding to the juicy wet sensation she was getting between her thighs.As he lapped at her nipples, caressing, licking, squeezing and mashing her mammaries with his right hand, his left hand traveled across her belly, inching its way lower on her body. Dana opened herself, thrilled to once again feel the pleasure of a man intimately handling all of her excited girl parts. Her cunny was more than moist, her breathing shallow and her brain swimming in a warm fog. Dana arched her hips as Orlando’s hand petted her bush; her little princess ached to once again be embraced by a dancing partner. It has been so long. Her warm, buttery inner parts were feeling more wonderful than she ever remembered.Orlando’s fingers passed over her dewy vulva with a firm pressure. His hand made a tight circular grinding motion before he spread her puffy lips open, probing along her slick walls, climbing up her canyon. Dana held her breath, she wanted to squeal before he got to her clit, but she held her silence with closed eyes, letting the anticipation of first contact build in her lungs and in her loins.Orlando’s fingertip crept up the underside of her rigid clit, painting her in her own sex juices. He circled her aroused bud, triggering a flash of blue electricity that shot under her skin to her toes. Dana’s hips bucked; her ass arched as she pushed her sex trigger into her lover’s fingers. He ran a couple of his fingers into her slippery cunny, drawing them up to her clit, bathing her in her own nectar. Dana burst into a series of brusque chirps, half-screaming, half-moaning as she was seized by convulsing and shaking legs. She choked out in shallow breaths, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh god, oh fuck. Oh, fucking fuck.”Orlando let her convulsions subside. Dana covered her eyes with her hands, gasping for breath as his fingers rested, half filling her pulsing cunny. “I could be wrong – but I’m not; you have a lot more in the tank my little chickpea.” Orlando stuffed his fingers further up inside her cunt as if he was taking the measure of her tank. He pulled out slowly, making sure he tickled her g-spot as he withdrew from her throbbing void.“I might have forgotten about the next element in your Secret Santa swap tonight, except it is so fucking uncomfortable right now. I’m afraid you’ll have to perform the final plucking of your evening’s gift partridge. I will need the skilled digits of my beautiful assistant; would you please remove my remaining apparel. I have been instructed by the one who sent me, to inform you that there is a special package waiting for you underneath.”With the glee of a young girl selecting her wrapped package from under the Christmas tree, Dana rolled on her side, unzipping Orlando’s white trousers and pulling them off. His erection was obvious under his holiday themed underwear, yet it looked as if his underwear was packing more than expected. Curious about his cock and whatever extras accompanied his package, she tugged his last bit of wrapping away to reveal the full package. Dana whooped in surprise, and laughed a hearty laugh, admiring the red bow adding a festive cheer to his stiff prick. “Oh my! Is this all for me?” she giggled.Orlando shrugged, “I suggest you read the label. If it’s not addressed to you, I’ve made a terrible mistake.”Dana picked up the card hanging from the red bow, dangling below Orlando’s Christmas balls: “On the First Day of Christmas, My True Friend gave to me, A Partridge in a Pear Tree. Dear Dana, I hope you enjoy the Christmas package I’ve selected for you. I’ve decided to exchange more than cookies after our usual Christmas Cookie Exchange. Dana, Merry Fucking Christmas! – McNally.”Dana let a little squeak escape, “This is all so very naughty.”Orlando thrust his hips toward Dana, “Yes it is. Would you do me a favor and unknot me?” he said, shaking his boner in front of her to get her to remove the bow and gift card from his masculine package.Dana’s eyes flashed with a mischievous grin, she wiggled her fingers in excitement before blushing as she reached to the base of the proud cock, lifting the elastic band at the base to un-decorate Orlando’s extended organ.“Thank you,” was his response as his partridge cock was now as free as a bird. He searched the folds of the bed cover, looking to find the bottle of partridge pecker oil he’d tossed onto the bed earlier. Dana found it under her bottom, showing her find to Orlando.“May I?” was her question as she managed a sheepish look up into Orlando’s eyes.“The pleasure would be all mine,” he replied.Dana reached out to grab his manhandle, coaxing him into bed. She crawled over him, letting her tits hang down, dangling in his face. She dropped her shoulders, let one nipple land on his lips, he gave her a lick, and then she plopped her other nipple to his lips, receiving a second exhilarating lick. She scooted down, grasping the base of his cock, about to apply a dab of lube, when she thought better of her idea.She wrapped her fingers around his shaft, marveling at the inflexible piece of anatomy, trying to recall the fun of having a man’s stiff cock penetrating her. It had been a while since she had even imagined enjoying the pleasure of a good fucking. She admired his towering erection, abandoned her last bit of hesitation holding her back and opened her lips and took him in deep. She moved her hands to his nuts, caressed them as she swabbed the hot pink shaft with her tongue. She sucked and stroked him, bringing him to maximum stiffness without a hint of gagging, feeling proud of her accomplishment.Orlando held her head tight between his hands as she bobbed up and down in slow, long strokes with her lips. Orlando’s hands reached under her, grabbing a handful of titties in each hand, massaging her boobs and making sure she had her plush nips squeezed between his fingers just the right amount of rough, stimulating pleasure.Dana was getting lathered up again, her lady parts were plump and wet with the thrill of sucking a thick cock and the powerful handling of her tits, making her want that cock to leave her lips and tongue and find its way down to her labia and clit. Dana let Orlando’s erection pull out of her mouth with a satisfying plop. She closed her eyes and made the deep humming sound of an aroused woman wanting and waiting to be taken.Orlando positioned his hand under her hanging udders, holding them in his solid grasp; he tilted her onto her back. Picking up the bottle of lube, he poured a small stream over her steaming cunt, rubbing his shaft with a second slathering. Dana’s humming picked up in pitch as the cold lube oil fell on her labia, but Orlando’s warm hands worked it into her soft girly flesh and made her feel happy and aroused to be pampered with floral scented oil on her feminine folds.Orlando had a well-oiled tool after a couple of strokes. He was eager to climb into his pear tree after great stimulating oral sex and the delight of handling Dana’s attractive and suitably large and pendulous tits. He spread Dana’s legs, pushing her knees wide after oiling her inner thighs. With a little bounce he crow-hopped between Dana’s outstretched legs, landing on the gaping fruit of his pear tree. His partridge flew into her, surprising her with his sudden furious first fuck. He was thick and forced her apart, she felt stuffed; startled at the filling sensation, surprised at the penetration and swoopy with the undulating, gripping response of her unpracticed sex muscles to Orlando’s perching inside her cunt.Orlando gripped her hips, Dana’s legs pointed up as he pounded her with scooping, hungry thrusts of his hips, poking, prodding, pushing his pecker deeper into her ravenous nether regions. Her screams began with his first humping thrust; each blow between her legs brought a corresponding scream, he was the hammer, she was the anvil. The hammer hit her with shuddering force, the anvil of her sex rang out with each blow in an echoing scream of unbridled pleasure. She was being pounded into a form of malleable feminine flesh as her lover worked her over.Dana had been fucked many times before, she and Sander had made love, mad love, lazy love, hungry love and yet this was new for her. She let each throbbing thrust push her higher. She let Orlando’s prick hammer her hard, pushing her to that orgasmic edge, an edge that was always a mystery. Dana never knew what was over the edge, at least not until she had been pushed over it and was falling into its abyss, filled with swirling clouds and tumbling waves of passion. She gave herself away, letting Orlando push her to the edge.She was hanging at the edge of her orgasm, she felt her lover’s muscles tighten along his lean body, his breathing was labored, her desire was to feel him cum inside her. She wanted to give herself to him. In giving herself up to his explosive ejaculation, she would be blasted into deep space. The lovers would be swept away together in a perfect climax.Dana tensed in response to the man fucking her as he strained to gather his energy like a coiled spring planted deep inside her sex chamber. With a throaty groan, Orlando let his seed burst from his loins, flooding Dana with white hot fluid. She felt his release. His energy tripped her delicately balanced desire. Orlando’s hot splash burst against the back of her vibrating inner hollow, exploding out through her lungs, rattling her pelvis as she shook and collapsed at its seductive power. The heat of her explosion radiated through all her muscles, warping the dimensions of her bedroom.Orlando rolled off her, pulling the heavy quilt over the two of them. He pulled Dana close to him, spooning with her as he buried his nose in her hair, letting his hand rest on her tit as dreams of sugar plums danced in their heads as they snuggled into a relaxed sleep like a contented partridge in a sweet pear tree.December’s late sunrise was filtering through the blinds when Dana opened her eyes at Orlando’s touch on her bare back. He ran his hand over her skin, rubbing the small of her back as she rolled over on her stomach. Waking up to a man’s roaming hands was a forgotten pleasure for Dana. Her night’s partner massaged her rump as she purred. Orlando gave her a light smack across her ass, whispering, “You have a beautiful pear-shaped ass, fresh and firm.” He bent over and took a tiny nip at her flank, Dana flinched, then he kissed it all better.“I regret that I have an appointment for later this morning. Please excuse me, but I will take my leave after a wonderful experience.” Dana watched him dress from under a wad of sheets and blankets.“Mr. Partridge?” she called as he moved toward the bedroom door, Orlando smiled and turned toward the nude woman lying in bed.“Yes?” he asked in a jaunty tone.“Tell McNally, 'Have yourself a Merry Fucking Christmas to one and to all’, would you?”Orlando chuckled, “That sounds like an inside joke among The Chix. I’ll leave that one up to you to deliver that message, my little chickpea.” Orlando let himself out of the house. Two Turtle DovesDana was reluctant to rise out of bed; she wished she could linger under the covers with a lover all day. But she was resigned to the fact that the day had to move forward. She locked the door, put on a pot of coffee and made her bed. Her phone pinged. She went to find it and red the incoming text.It was from Annie, 'Clear your calendar this afternoon girl. I’ll be delivering a holiday surprise package to your house. You will need to be at home to receive it!’ Dana’s first thought was, how sweet of Annie.She was expecting a visit from Annie when the doorbell rang mid-afternoon. Dana was surprised to see Nelson on her doorstep. “Is Annie with you?” Dana asked with a quizzical look and a realization that she was experiencing a flash of deja vu all over again.Nelson stepped into the house carrying a small gift bag and handed Dana a scroll tied with a white ribbon. “What’s this?” Dana asked as she cocked her head, taking the scroll from Nelson. “This is all so mysterious - again,” she said with her eyes and smile flashing in obvious enjoyment of the unfolding mystery in her entry hall. Dana ran her eyes up and down the broad, well-toned frame of the dark-haired man whom she had known as a friend for many years.Dana unfurled the scroll, feeling a hot flush ignite her face as she red Annie’s words while her complexion blushed to contrast with the scroll&rsquo

Two Turtle Doves, or Dildos?Based on a post by SandyMarl, in 4 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.Dana returned to the kitchen as Orlando was finishing drying the stemware. She leaned back against the counter, crossing her arms in front of her tits as she tried to give a confident look, though a drunken squirrel was racing around inside her chest.Orlando folded the dish towel, set it down as he stepped to her side. He reached around her waist and pulled her close, brushing her hair back, he whispered into her ear, “Strange as it is, there are some people who have a difficult time accepting good things that are given to them. You have been given a set of good and close girlfriends Dana.” Orlando placed his fingertips at the base of her jaw, “Your pulse is beating hard, I sense that you are understandably nervous to find yourself in a position to accept or reject a special, intimate gift that has been tenderly offered to you.” Continuing to whisper into her ear in a mesmerizing, deep masculine voice. “It is my hope that you will be accepting of all the pleasures and dreams which are before you.”Dana gulped, wanting some words to come out of her throat, but nothing happened. She wasn’t sure if those stuck words ever made it onto her tongue what they would say to Orlando’s proposition. She liked the idea that they could be a ‘yes’, but something held her back from giving an answer. She let her emotions bubble hot inside of her, waiting until they were ready to come out in their own time; she wished and hoped they’d be an accepting 'yes’, but she wasn’t sure.The roaming fingers of her cooing partridge traced down the side of her neck, parting her collar from her prickly, heated skin. His fingers found her bra strap and followed it lower along the pathway that brought his touch to the slope of her tit. With one hand, the tips of his fingers ran along the upper rim of her black lacy cup while the other hand undid the top button of her blouse. Orlando breathed his warm, moist breath into her ear. “You’ve changed into something lacy since I’ve arrived,” was Orlando’s observation. “You have not given me a spoken answer as to whether you’ll accept an intimate gift, but I have gotten your subtle answer by my discovery of your hidden charms. You are a charming woman,” Orlando breathed into her ear in a husky voice, and then gave her a small kiss on the cheek.Dana let out a small moan as she unconsciously tipped her head back, exposing her throat and lifting her tits as Orlando teased her flesh as he continued with his light touch running along the contours of her bra. Her gift lover recognized the moan, the short breaths, the exposed throat and the visible flush of her chest as the tell-tale signs of a woman drifting into seduction. Dana didn’t have to speak; she had already extended an invitation in the wordless language of lovers for Orlando to take her wherever he wanted to go.Orlando worked deliberately, unfastening each button as he pressed his warm lips to her throat followed by tiny, wet touches with the tip of his tongue. Dana let his attention wash over her skin, floating on warm waves that rippled through her insides. With the bottom button undone, he rolled his fingers around her cups, petting her ribs before setting his fingers between her fingers, lifting their entwined hands and guiding Dana out of the kitchen, floating toward the back of the house.Lifting her unfastened shirt off her shoulders, Orlando tossed it over a chair in the corner and then pressed her with his palm, forcing Dana to fall back onto the bed. Dana landed on her back with a giggle, loving the feeling of being desired and taken. She placed her hands behind her head, accentuating her tits covered in the gossamer black fabric of her cups. She relished watching Orlando, waiting to see his next move.Orlando reached into the side pocket of his jacket, tossing a small bottle onto the bed. “What’s that?” asked Dana from her reclining pin-up girl pose.“Consider it 'partridge oil,’ my little chickpea. Some of us more experienced partridges find that a dab or two on a partridge’s pecker makes for smoother night’s nesting in our chosen pear tree.”Dana broke into a broad grin, “I never knew partridges were such considerate birds,” she said.“Not all partridges are, some will leave droppings on your car. But when a partridge finds an attractive limb or two, we partridges are known to be considerate nesters.” Orlando tossed his jacket over the back of the corner chair and then stripped off his shirt, shoes and socks.“Now, I believe this old, experienced partridge has found a pair of attractive limbs that interest me a great deal.” Orlando crawled onto the bed, unsnapped Dana’s pants and pulled them off as she lifted her lower limbs skyward. Orlando admired her matching lacy black panties for a moment before he swooped in and removed the pair just as he’d done with her pants. “Ah, there is a pretty little partridge nest at the top of a pair of attractive limbs,” announced Orlando, more to himself than to Dana.Dana felt shy, but at the same time pleased to be the object of a man’s intimate attention for the first time in a long time. She lay on the bed, her cunny and pubic hair exposed to Orlando’s admiring eyes while still trussed up in her bra. She squirmed over to retrieve the bottle of lubricant that Orlando had tossed onto the quilt. She shook it in front of the shirtless man lying next to her, teasing him she asked, “Don’t you have to molt or something before this 'partridge oil’ can be applied to your pecker?” She was pleased to see the fabric at his crotch stretched over a nice, rigid form.“I’m getting the urge to roost, but I’d enjoy a little more playtime.” Orlando tucked his targeted pear tree under the heavy quilt, slipping under to join her. He pulled her over to cuddle next to him. He slipped her straps off her shoulders, massaging and nibbling at her back as he unhooked the last of her garments, discarding it over the side of the bed. He rolled her onto her back, cupping and squeezing her tits as he kissed her arms, working his lips to the top of her tit, bunching her tit in his firm grip as he pushed her erect nipple into his mouth. He inhaled her exquisitely sensitive titty tip with a vigorous suction that filled his hot, wet mouth. His tongue darted and circled around her puffed up bits, sending sparks shooting into her clit. He worked her fleshy mounds over with his mouth, drooling over her melons and adding to the juicy wet sensation she was getting between her thighs.As he lapped at her nipples, caressing, licking, squeezing and mashing her mammaries with his right hand, his left hand traveled across her belly, inching its way lower on her body. Dana opened herself, thrilled to once again feel the pleasure of a man intimately handling all of her excited girl parts. Her cunny was more than moist, her breathing shallow and her brain swimming in a warm fog. Dana arched her hips as Orlando’s hand petted her bush; her little princess ached to once again be embraced by a dancing partner. It has been so long. Her warm, buttery inner parts were feeling more wonderful than she ever remembered.Orlando’s fingers passed over her dewy vulva with a firm pressure. His hand made a tight circular grinding motion before he spread her puffy lips open, probing along her slick walls, climbing up her canyon. Dana held her breath, she wanted to squeal before he got to her clit, but she held her silence with closed eyes, letting the anticipation of first contact build in her lungs and in her loins.Orlando’s fingertip crept up the underside of her rigid clit, painting her in her own sex juices. He circled her aroused bud, triggering a flash of blue electricity that shot under her skin to her toes. Dana’s hips bucked; her ass arched as she pushed her sex trigger into her lover’s fingers. He ran a couple of his fingers into her slippery cunny, drawing them up to her clit, bathing her in her own nectar. Dana burst into a series of brusque chirps, half-screaming, half-moaning as she was seized by convulsing and shaking legs. She choked out in shallow breaths, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh god, oh fuck. Oh, fucking fuck.”Orlando let her convulsions subside. Dana covered her eyes with her hands, gasping for breath as his fingers rested, half filling her pulsing cunny. “I could be wrong – but I’m not; you have a lot more in the tank my little chickpea.” Orlando stuffed his fingers further up inside her cunt as if he was taking the measure of her tank. He pulled out slowly, making sure he tickled her g-spot as he withdrew from her throbbing void.“I might have forgotten about the next element in your Secret Santa swap tonight, except it is so fucking uncomfortable right now. I’m afraid you’ll have to perform the final plucking of your evening’s gift partridge. I will need the skilled digits of my beautiful assistant; would you please remove my remaining apparel. I have been instructed by the one who sent me, to inform you that there is a special package waiting for you underneath.”With the glee of a young girl selecting her wrapped package from under the Christmas tree, Dana rolled on her side, unzipping Orlando’s white trousers and pulling them off. His erection was obvious under his holiday themed underwear, yet it looked as if his underwear was packing more than expected. Curious about his cock and whatever extras accompanied his package, she tugged his last bit of wrapping away to reveal the full package. Dana whooped in surprise, and laughed a hearty laugh, admiring the red bow adding a festive cheer to his stiff prick. “Oh my! Is this all for me?” she giggled.Orlando shrugged, “I suggest you read the label. If it’s not addressed to you, I’ve made a terrible mistake.”Dana picked up the card hanging from the red bow, dangling below Orlando’s Christmas balls: “On the First Day of Christmas, My True Friend gave to me, A Partridge in a Pear Tree. Dear Dana, I hope you enjoy the Christmas package I’ve selected for you. I’ve decided to exchange more than cookies after our usual Christmas Cookie Exchange. Dana, Merry Fucking Christmas! – McNally.”Dana let a little squeak escape, “This is all so very naughty.”Orlando thrust his hips toward Dana, “Yes it is. Would you do me a favor and unknot me?” he said, shaking his boner in front of her to get her to remove the bow and gift card from his masculine package.Dana’s eyes flashed with a mischievous grin, she wiggled her fingers in excitement before blushing as she reached to the base of the proud cock, lifting the elastic band at the base to un-decorate Orlando’s extended organ.“Thank you,” was his response as his partridge cock was now as free as a bird. He searched the folds of the bed cover, looking to find the bottle of partridge pecker oil he’d tossed onto the bed earlier. Dana found it under her bottom, showing her find to Orlando.“May I?” was her question as she managed a sheepish look up into Orlando’s eyes.“The pleasure would be all mine,” he replied.Dana reached out to grab his manhandle, coaxing him into bed. She crawled over him, letting her tits hang down, dangling in his face. She dropped her shoulders, let one nipple land on his lips, he gave her a lick, and then she plopped her other nipple to his lips, receiving a second exhilarating lick. She scooted down, grasping the base of his cock, about to apply a dab of lube, when she thought better of her idea.She wrapped her fingers around his shaft, marveling at the inflexible piece of anatomy, trying to recall the fun of having a man’s stiff cock penetrating her. It had been a while since she had even imagined enjoying the pleasure of a good fucking. She admired his towering erection, abandoned her last bit of hesitation holding her back and opened her lips and took him in deep. She moved her hands to his nuts, caressed them as she swabbed the hot pink shaft with her tongue. She sucked and stroked him, bringing him to maximum stiffness without a hint of gagging, feeling proud of her accomplishment.Orlando held her head tight between his hands as she bobbed up and down in slow, long strokes with her lips. Orlando’s hands reached under her, grabbing a handful of titties in each hand, massaging her boobs and making sure she had her plush nips squeezed between his fingers just the right amount of rough, stimulating pleasure.Dana was getting lathered up again, her lady parts were plump and wet with the thrill of sucking a thick cock and the powerful handling of her tits, making her want that cock to leave her lips and tongue and find its way down to her labia and clit. Dana let Orlando’s erection pull out of her mouth with a satisfying plop. She closed her eyes and made the deep humming sound of an aroused woman wanting and waiting to be taken.Orlando positioned his hand under her hanging udders, holding them in his solid grasp; he tilted her onto her back. Picking up the bottle of lube, he poured a small stream over her steaming cunt, rubbing his shaft with a second slathering. Dana’s humming picked up in pitch as the cold lube oil fell on her labia, but Orlando’s warm hands worked it into her soft girly flesh and made her feel happy and aroused to be pampered with floral scented oil on her feminine folds.Orlando had a well-oiled tool after a couple of strokes. He was eager to climb into his pear tree after great stimulating oral sex and the delight of handling Dana’s attractive and suitably large and pendulous tits. He spread Dana’s legs, pushing her knees wide after oiling her inner thighs. With a little bounce he crow-hopped between Dana’s outstretched legs, landing on the gaping fruit of his pear tree. His partridge flew into her, surprising her with his sudden furious first fuck. He was thick and forced her apart, she felt stuffed; startled at the filling sensation, surprised at the penetration and swoopy with the undulating, gripping response of her unpracticed sex muscles to Orlando’s perching inside her cunt.Orlando gripped her hips, Dana’s legs pointed up as he pounded her with scooping, hungry thrusts of his hips, poking, prodding, pushing his pecker deeper into her ravenous nether regions. Her screams began with his first humping thrust; each blow between her legs brought a corresponding scream, he was the hammer, she was the anvil. The hammer hit her with shuddering force, the anvil of her sex rang out with each blow in an echoing scream of unbridled pleasure. She was being pounded into a form of malleable feminine flesh as her lover worked her over.Dana had been fucked many times before, she and Sander had made love, mad love, lazy love, hungry love and yet this was new for her. She let each throbbing thrust push her higher. She let Orlando’s prick hammer her hard, pushing her to that orgasmic edge, an edge that was always a mystery. Dana never knew what was over the edge, at least not until she had been pushed over it and was falling into its abyss, filled with swirling clouds and tumbling waves of passion. She gave herself away, letting Orlando push her to the edge.She was hanging at the edge of her orgasm, she felt her lover’s muscles tighten along his lean body, his breathing was labored, her desire was to feel him cum inside her. She wanted to give herself to him. In giving herself up to his explosive ejaculation, she would be blasted into deep space. The lovers would be swept away together in a perfect climax.Dana tensed in response to the man fucking her as he strained to gather his energy like a coiled spring planted deep inside her sex chamber. With a throaty groan, Orlando let his seed burst from his loins, flooding Dana with white hot fluid. She felt his release. His energy tripped her delicately balanced desire. Orlando’s hot splash burst against the back of her vibrating inner hollow, exploding out through her lungs, rattling her pelvis as she shook and collapsed at its seductive power. The heat of her explosion radiated through all her muscles, warping the dimensions of her bedroom.Orlando rolled off her, pulling the heavy quilt over the two of them. He pulled Dana close to him, spooning with her as he buried his nose in her hair, letting his hand rest on her tit as dreams of sugar plums danced in their heads as they snuggled into a relaxed sleep like a contented partridge in a sweet pear tree.December’s late sunrise was filtering through the blinds when Dana opened her eyes at Orlando’s touch on her bare back. He ran his hand over her skin, rubbing the small of her back as she rolled over on her stomach. Waking up to a man’s roaming hands was a forgotten pleasure for Dana. Her night’s partner massaged her rump as she purred. Orlando gave her a light smack across her ass, whispering, “You have a beautiful pear-shaped ass, fresh and firm.” He bent over and took a tiny nip at her flank, Dana flinched, then he kissed it all better.“I regret that I have an appointment for later this morning. Please excuse me, but I will take my leave after a wonderful experience.” Dana watched him dress from under a wad of sheets and blankets.“Mr. Partridge?” she called as he moved toward the bedroom door, Orlando smiled and turned toward the nude woman lying in bed.“Yes?” he asked in a jaunty tone.“Tell McNally, 'Have yourself a Merry Fucking Christmas to one and to all’, would you?”Orlando chuckled, “That sounds like an inside joke among The Chix. I’ll leave that one up to you to deliver that message, my little chickpea.” Orlando let himself out of the house. Two Turtle DovesDana was reluctant to rise out of bed; she wished she could linger under the covers with a lover all day. But she was resigned to the fact that the day had to move forward. She locked the door, put on a pot of coffee and made her bed. Her phone pinged. She went to find it and red the incoming text.It was from Annie, 'Clear your calendar this afternoon girl. I’ll be delivering a holiday surprise package to your house. You will need to be at home to receive it!’ Dana’s first thought was, how sweet of Annie.She was expecting a visit from Annie when the doorbell rang mid-afternoon. Dana was surprised to see Nelson on her doorstep. “Is Annie with you?” Dana asked with a quizzical look and a realization that she was experiencing a flash of deja vu all over again.Nelson stepped into the house carrying a small gift bag and handed Dana a scroll tied with a white ribbon. “What’s this?” Dana asked as she cocked her head, taking the scroll from Nelson. “This is all so mysterious - again,” she said with her eyes and smile flashing in obvious enjoyment of the unfolding mystery in her entry hall. Dana ran her eyes up and down the broad, well-toned frame of the dark-haired man whom she had known as a friend for many years.Dana unfurled the scroll, feeling a hot flush ignite her face as she red Annie’s words while her complexion blushed to contrast with the scroll&rsquo

Show us some loveWe're back, yeeeeaaaa boi *cue pops*. Your favorite guys from your favorite show are back like we never left bringing you all the shenanigans from our side of the world. Join this week as we open up talking about fancy fast food choices and end on Orange in charge's fan club attempting to keep him from behind bars. With the Super Bowl in our rear view mirrors, we recap how amazingly perfect it was. However, it wouldn't be right of us if we didn't include the other side's performance and how they celebrated as well for Merica. One of our biggest sporting spectacles where everyone is tuned is, is it really all that it's cracked up to be for the host city? What are your Valentine's Day plans? Dig you snag your limited edition McCaviar to share with those you love? Did you see them ask the US Attorney General to step down? We can go on for days with these questions or you can invite a friend, crack open that beer and hit play…See y'all on the show!Support the show

Fireball XL5, All Along the Watchtower, Cut It Out, Go+, Take Away/The Lure of Salvage, Living Through Another Cuba… There are more – and they're all examples of XTC's early experiments with dub. In this special two-hour edition of What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast, we are exploding together as we go on a deep dive into XTC's fascinating adventures in sound. Sharing their love of dub are Tom Morley, the original drummer of Scritti Politti, stand-up comedian Mark Thomas, and songwriter and broadcaster Paul Myers, plus dedicated XTC fans Jeff Farris and Kevin Chanel. Mark Thomas: https://markthomasinfo.co.uk/ Paul Myers: https://pulmyears.substack.com/ Jeff Farris: https://soundcloud.com/jefffarris Kevin Chanel and Groove Records: https://groovesrecords.com/Tom Morley: https://tommorley.com/about/ What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book available from www.xtclimelight.com  If you've enjoyed What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast, please show your support at https://www.patreon.com/markfisher Thanks to the Pink Things, Humble Daisies and Knights in Shining Karma who've done the same.What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast is sponsored by the online record shop, Burning Shed, the only place to get official XTC merchandise.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Join neurodiversity advocate and podcaster Alex Partridge, co-founder of LADbible and UNILAD, for a deeply personal and practical event exploring life, ADHD, and his books.

Welcome to the Art, Life, Faith podcast. And I’m your host, Roger Lowther. Well, Happy New Year everyone! It’s good to be with you in 2026. I hope you’ve had a good year so far. Two of my boys are in college now but were able to be back with us over the winter break, and we got to have some fun in the snowy mountains of Japan, including an overnight snowshoe camping trip up one of the tallest mountains in Japan. It was beautiful, but it was also very, very cold. So cold, in fact, that the water in our water bottles froze almost immediately. And my fingers stuck to any kind of metal I touched. But so many good memories. Anyway, I want to thank you so much for your support of our newest children’s book, The Tsunami Violin, which was released late last year. Many of you have been writing me notes of encouragement, telling me who you’ve gifted the book to or your own experiences with the story. I want to share one of them with you. One woman read the book to her granddaughter’s elementary school class. In her note to me, she wrote, “Every child was wide-eyed and engaged. Students were able to identify how the characters were happy at the beginning, how they were changed by the tsunami, and how at the end of the story they were happy again because they were able to bring others hope through their story and their music. I will always cherish this special time with the students and that it was possible because of your book.” So of course I’m encouraged to receive notes like this and pray that this book will continue to have an ongoing impact in people’s lives. In our last episode, we shared a little bit about the making of The Tsunami Violin and the people involved. I thought you may also like to hear a little bit more about the background of what went into the making of the book. We consciously followed the traditional sonata-allegro form that is so common in much of classical music. In the beginning, we have the exposition, when the main theme is introduced. The main character is introduced as a tree, living in a literal garden of paradise, a forest that was planted 400 years ago and was designated as one of the most beautiful sites in all of Japan. Then everything falls apart. The tsunami comes and physically breaks the tree, tearing her up by the roots. This is the beginning of the development section, when the melodic theme is broken into fragments. Also, the development is usually in the minor key to express sadness. Then in the story the craftsman shows up, has the tree cut into smaller pieces, takes them to Tokyo, and begins to build a violin out of them. So this is the part where the development continues, where melodic fragments are taken through different keys and different ways: backwards, forwards, and upside down. Sometimes they find new relationships with a secondary theme. In other words, the fragments are put back together in new ways. And then the story ends with the main character finding hope and new life as a violin, surrounded by community through her music. And this, of course, is the recapitulation, the opening musical theme but as a new creation. Somehow that theme is deeper and more beautiful for having gone through the trauma of the development, through the breaking, through the minor key, and we hear the melody with new ears. I pray that as you read this book, you will be filled with new wonder as to how God brings hope into broken lives. Okay, today I want to share with you a conversation I had with Jerrod Partridge, a phenomenal artist working in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. He and his wife Jessie play a central role in the life of the community there, running a studio right on the main strip, and also in the lives of so many artists including, recently, a Japanese intern who came from our community here in Tokyo to spend the summer with that family. I so appreciate them and am happy just to be able to share this conversation with you so that you can get to know them as well. Jerrod Hello Roger. Roger Thank you so much for being on the show. Jerrod Yeah, I’m thrilled to be here. Roger Yeah, I really wanted people to know you, not just because you’re a phenomenal artist, but also because of your story. Jerrod Well, I mean, you’re very integrated into that story. So, it seems appropriate that we’re sitting here talking. Roger Yeah. So let me just try to share with listeners what happened. You came to Japan on a 10-day trip, two weekends with a week in between. And during that time, you did a number of events. For example, there was a church that was just starting in a new location called Double O Cross, and they wanted to introduce their space to the community. And so, in order to do that, they hosted, for the first time, an event. I think it was the first event they ever had in that space. They hosted an art show of your work. It was an amazing event. We had a live musician playing a traditional Japanese instrument, and we had wine and cheese. It was sophisticated. A lot of people came in for the first time, and the pastor was so happy. Jerrod That was a really incredible experience for me to get to experience the church in Japan, to get to experience the culture, meet so many wonderful, gracious people. It was really, honestly, a life-altering experience for me. Roger Also, there’s more about the story of this church. They wanted to plant a second location to have another service, but everyone wanted to be in that one space where the art gallery was because, somehow, I think through events like that, that we were able to do afterwards, people were really drawn into that space. It felt like a place of home. The community really liked being there. It was a space that was a gift to the neighborhood. To introduce that space to the neighborhood through the arts really was a powerful message. Jerrod It was very welcoming. The artwork, how it was displayed, and then having the musician play. I did a drawing while she was playing. So that was a neat collaboration. Then, even one of the guys from the church made some refreshments and snacks that related to the work. Because I do a lot of drawings with walnut ink, he had snacks that were made with walnuts and things. And I thought that connection and relationship was so thoughtful and really made the whole thing have depth and meaning beyond just pictures on the wall. Roger Right, and you should know, too, that some of the relationships made for the first time in that event have continued through that church and through our artist community. I still am talking to those people. Jerrod Yeah, that’s amazing. And likewise, relationships that I’ve made have continued. Roger So cool. Well, then the next day, I think it was, or a day later, we had an event at our church, Grace City Church Tokyo, where we hosted a talk and luncheon before worship and sold some of your works. You were able to talk about it over a sushi lunch, and we also had a Q&A time. Jerrod Yeah, that was really fascinating. It was eye-opening for me, some of the questions that came out, because there are things that we just don’t think about necessarily. We don’t consider how a different culture is going to see your processes and interpretations. One thing that I specifically remember I do a lot of work on handmade paper, and the paper is intentionally really textured. I leave openings and holes. It’s real rough. But I know the Japanese people are used to paper making in such a high form. The paper that they make is so gorgeous and perfectly done. So there was a little confusion of why would you make paper that’s so rough and imperfect. But when I explained the process, there was a really neat connection of understanding why I would choose to do it in that form. So that was a really wonderful memory. Then also the question of why I might have been painting some of the things I was painting. Roger Yeah, I remember that. My church sponsored the event, and we made it clear you were a Christian. It was not necessarily a Christian event, but it was hosted and sponsored by Christians. One of the people asked, “Why do you, as a Christian, why are you painting Shinto Shrines? Why are you painting Buddhist temples?” Jerrod Yeah, that was fascinating. It was an eye-opening question for me because as a foreigner, everything was new and different and visually exciting. I didn’t think too much about why, as a Christian, I might be drawn to these things visually. Roger Do you remember what your answer was to their question? Jerrod Only vaguely. Because I was a little bit surprised by the question. So, you tell me what you remember. Roger I remember you saying, “Because it’s beautiful. I wanted to paint it because it’s beautiful.” But they were a little bit surprised by that because I think there’s a pretty strong message to, especially Christians in Japan, that you should not go to shrines, you should not go to temples, that it is contrary to what the God of the Bible desires. And they try to avoid that side of Japanese culture, which is such a huge part of Japanese culture. It’s a real struggle in the Japanese church, I think. Jerrod Yeah, and I could see that struggle and was glad to be aware of the sensitivity of that. But at the same time, I did feel like the message of the fact that a Christian can see the beauty of what is created by non-Christians, but also the beauty of the fact that everybody are children of God, that whatever understanding we may have of religions, of culture, that there is beauty all around us in God’s creation, but also in man’s creation. And that can be celebrated. That can be celebrated through our approach as Christians without having to limit ourselves to the person making the creations. They have to believe what I believe for me to appreciate what they’re doing. And I just think that that limitation is unnecessary and not helpful. Roger Yeah, I actually I have a lot of discussions with Christian artists in Japan about this, and there’s a lot of opinions about it. We’re still trying to figure it out because, yes, we believe as Christians that there is no beauty outside of God’s beauty. So all beauty is essentially pointing to the source of all beauty. But when it comes through other religions, there is a, I don’t know, a barrier, I think, within the heart that make it difficult to worship God and to see that beauty because of growing up in that culture and such a strong connection between Japanese art and the Japanese religion. Jerrod Yeah, I think as a foreigner, there’s obviously that cultural separation where I’m able to see things from a distance because I didn’t grow up in the culture, and I can just see it all as an outside beauty. There’s a much easier time for me to do that And again, to recognize the sensitivity of a Japanese Christian’s perspective on that was really informative to me. Roger Yeah. I remember one of the practical cool things about the event was that we were inviting many people who weren’t Christians to the art event, to the luncheon. And then because worship was happening right after that in just the room next door, it was one more doorway into Christian community, into Christian worship. People came from that event then to worship for the first time in their life because of what you did, because you came. Let me transition to that. Why did you come to Japan in the first place? Jerrod Well, it was a really unexpected thing. You came and did a concert at our church here in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, because of a relationship that you had with our pastor. I felt the need to introduce myself after I heard you play. I’ve always been very drawn to and attracted to Japanese aesthetics. The fact that it’s encouraged nationally is a really fascinating thing to me, but it’s always been something I’ve been drawn to. When I found out that you were a performing artist in Japan, I just felt the need to introduce myself. From that introduction, you saw the work that I was doing. You invited me to Japan. Our church decided to help me get there. They ended up sending me to Japan to have this exhibition with you. It felt all very God-led because none of us planned any of it. It was like just from that introduction, all these things started happening that felt necessary and changed lives in a way that we could not have planned. Roger That’s so true. I love meeting artists wherever I’m traveling around. But the fact that after inviting you, you said, “Yeah, I’ll come.” Now, that is very unusual. Most people I invite, they’re like, Well, that’s okay. Thank you. I had no idea how talented you were as an artist at the time, but also how good you are with people. Just to see how God worked through you was just an amazing blessing in so many ways. To see how God just, through that one chance meeting, that all this came about. So one of the things that came about is recently a Japanese artist came from Japan and stayed in your home for a while and worked as an artist. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Jerrod Yeah, so we hosted Satomi Suzuki. I met Satomi when I was in Japan in 2019, but it was a very brief meeting, and I didn’t know for sure that we had met. When you mentioned to me the idea that she was looking for an artist in residency program. My wife and I own a flower shop and art gallery here in downtown Ocean Springs. And you saw that that might be an interesting opportunity for Satomi to get a different experience. We said, “Yeah, that sounds wonderful.” The name sounded somewhat familiar, but I met so many people while I was over there, so I didn’t know for sure. But I dug back down into my memoirs from the trip, papers and things that I had brought back, and I found this lovely little note that she had written at my art exhibition of how much she enjoyed the show, how much she appreciated me being there. To see that written out immediately made me feel like there’s this deeper connection that I wasn’t even aware of. Roger You even have it here on the table next to you. You kept it. Jerrod I pulled it out for you to see because the name sounded familiar because she had written this at the show, and I had brought it back and read through. And she wasn’t the only one. Multiple really wonderful comments from people that I met. But we were excited about that continued relationship of, “Okay, here’s somebody looking for an art. She wants the opportunity to paint. She wants to experience different things.” And life in Ocean Springs is very different from life in Tokyo. Much fewer people. Much slower pace of life. But again, it felt like something that was beyond our knowledge and intention of what was going on. And so when the idea came, we said, yes, this sounds like a wonderful thing, a wonderful opportunity for us to have a different experience for our family to experience the Japanese culture coming to Ocean Springs with no clue as to what that was going to look like. We didn’t even know if Satomi spoke English well. We didn’t know anything about her, but we said, Okay, sure. Then we still didn’t know where she was going to stay. Our oldest son ended up getting a job opportunity out of the state for a few months. Jerrod Again, that just fit right into the plan that God had for this to work out that we could not have known was going to happen. So all of a sudden, we had a room available in our home, and we invited her to come and be a part of our family. And she fit in in the most amazing way. She came in with a real loving, gracious heart. She wanted to work. She wanted to be able to experience a different culture. And we thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed having her here. Roger Yeah, that’s so kind of you to open your home to her in that way. I know for a fact, and actually you all too can know for a fact by reading her blog, just how much it’s changed her life to be able to go on this residency, how good it was. I’m going to put some links in the show notes so you can see her artwork and what she was up to. SATOMI SUZUKI INSTRAGRAM Jerrod And she was on a recent podcast with you. Roger She was, yes. Jerrod We enjoyed listening to that. Roger I interviewed her to help raise money for her time here. And so, you can go back and listen to that. I’ll also put a link to that in the show notes. https://www.rogerwlowther.com/2024/05/01/57-beauty-through-gods-eyes-with-satomi-suzuki/ So why Ocean Springs? What brought you here as a visual artist? This is a special place. Tell me why. Jerrod Yeah, there’s a there’s a unique art culture here. We lived in Jackson for a long time, and Jackson has a unique support and celebration. And I think Mississippi as a whole supports artists and the arts. It’s hard to say that this doesn’t exist in other surrounding places. It probably does. But living here and knowing that Mississippi does not always get a good reputation for things. Most of the stories coming out about Mississippi are not positive. But living here, I can tell you it is a very positive and encouraging place for artists. Jackson was wonderful. We ended up moving our family down to the coast in 2016. I grew up in Mobile, which is also on the coast and so being near the water was always an attractive place for me to be. But we moved our family down here. The culture of Ocean Springs has really been developed by this one family, the Anderson family, who in the early turn of the century started a pottery studio. One of the brothers was a really successful potter. One of the brothers, Walter Anderson, was a painter and printmaker. And now there’s a museum here in town dedicated to his work. And it’s really neat to see how this one family of artists have created an aesthetic for the whole town, and how the town celebrates that, identifies with the imagery that they created. I just really love that artists were able to give this unity to a community. I think that attracts artists, that they see that art has become an identifier for this town, and therefore, artists want to be here. Roger I love that downtown area. It’s a walking area, right? Shop after shop after shop. It’s just a really fun place to be. Jerrod It’s beautiful with all the old oak trees. That’s one of the real iconic aspects of the town and the area all along the Gulf Coast, not just Ocean Springs, but the old oak trees are special. There’s actually an exhibition that I curated at the Walter Anderson Museum right now that is based on live oaks. I selected 10 different artists to create work, to dig into the cultural, spiritual, ecological aspects of living with live oaks. It’s something that needs to be celebrated. Roger Yeah. I know that right next to that museum is where you just opened, you and your wife opened up a shop in a really nice hotel in an older style. Jerrod It’s a boutique hotel, so 15 rooms, small but right in the downtown area, right next to the Walter Anderson Museum. Ever since we moved to Ocean Springs, we thought it’d be neat to have something downtown. It just has such a wonderful feel. We thought, Well, that would be neat, but we don’t know how we would do that or what it would look like, or even if it would be supported. We just didn’t know. Then we met the developers on this hotel, and we saw that we had this unified vision for what it could be, and a real nature-focused aesthetic to it. They appreciated what we were doing. Jessie, my wife, with her floral design, fantastic designer, me with the artwork that I was doing. I’m doing a lot of nature-themed paintings, and they just really fit together with their vision of the development. That’s been a really neat thing. Community has really stepped up and supported what we’re doing. It’s been a big learning experience. We’re still within the first year of opening. We’ve never had a physical shop before. I’ve been painting full-time for 15 years. Jessie’s been doing weddings and events for about that amount of time. We’ve always just worked in the studio and then had events that we were working for. This is our first time to actually have our own physical space. It’s been amazing. There have been some hard things to it, but a lot of learning going on. Roger Yeah, I loved seeing this space. Thank you for showing it to me last night. You talked about how the Andersons created this atmosphere where the artist wanted to join, and you now are definitely a huge part of that being right on that main strip with all the old shops in that hotel right next to the museum. It’s just so cool to see how art is playing such a huge role in life of the city here. Jerrod Yeah. And even within the museum itself right now, there’s an exhibition of the Ocean Spring’s Art Association has this huge exhibition of artists from all along the coast within the museum right now. And so, the arts culture here is really huge. It’s encouraging. It’s exciting. We just had this big Peter Anderson Festival in town, where around 150,000 people come in one week. That’s a lot of people. In Tokyo standards, that’s not a whole lot. But for this small town, for that many people to come because of the arts, is really exciting. Roger So we’re just about out of time, but is there anything else you would like to say before we sign off? Jerrod Yeah, I’d like to talk a little bit about just traveling as an artist. We talked about traveling to Japan, but I’ve actually gotten to lead a bunch of groups to Europe for travel and to teach drawing and painting in Europe. We’ve been to Italy 10 different times. We’ve taken groups to Spain and Greece, and we went to Sweden this year. Every time I go to a different culture, I learn something else about humanity, and it’s usually positive. And I think that’s a wonderful thing, to experience the cultures, how people interact with the arts, how people interact with each other, and then being able to bring that back to my daily life. It’s always going to influence you in some way, whether it’s obvious to others or not. It may just be all internal. So the trip to Japan fit in that as well. It was a different type of trip because I was having a show instead of leading a group. But being able to offer that to other people and knowing how life-changing that can be has been a really exciting thing over the past several years to be able to do. I’m actually organizing a trip. We’re going back to Italy next June soon, and then I’m putting together a trip to France to study Monet next September. Roger That’s so cool. People listening, could they join as well? Jerrod Yes, of course. It’s open. We go and we really focus on studying the arts. Some people take drawing and painting lessons from me while we’re over there, but not everybody. Some are just there to soak it up and enjoy it from the periphery. There’s some of us that are really digging into creating work and experiencing the place through drawing and painting. But I understand that’s not for everyone. We do encourage people to respond to the experience creatively in whatever form they may have. They may take photographs. They may write in journals or write poetry. I think that being over there and responding creatively is something that we can encourage no matter what their experience level is. Roger Well, thank you so much for your time and for opening people’s eyes to the beauty of the world around them, the cultures around them. And thank you so much for sitting down with me. Jerrod Thanks, Roger. I appreciate it. JERROD PARTRIDGE WEBSITE

The Zack from Fierce Fighting Championship previews their next event Saturday night at the SLC Masonic Temple

In this solo episode of The SuperLife Podcast, Darin Olien dives deep into the true biology of energy—not motivation, not stimulants, not willpower, but the mitochondria themselves. Inspired by a groundbreaking conversation between Dr. Andrew Huberman and Dr. Martin Picard, Darin reframes energy as an emergent property of how we live, not just what we eat or how much we sleep. This episode explores how mitochondria act as signal translators, listening to your food, stress, sleep, movement, emotions, purpose, and environment—and turning those signals into either vitality or depletion. Darin connects cutting-edge mitochondrial science with real-world practices around recovery, meaningful stress, consistency, connection, and alignment, showing how true longevity and resilience are built at the cellular level.     What You'll Learn in This Episode 00:00  – Welcome to SuperLife & the mission of sovereignty and vitality 00:32 – Thera Sage sponsor: family-built healing tech & red light 02:10 – Why this episode is different: diving into cellular energy 02:42 – Inspiration from Huberman & Picard's mitochondria conversation 03:11 – Rethinking mitochondria: not just ATP, but information processors 04:03 – Energy as potential for change, not calories or fuel 04:39 – How thoughts, emotions, food, and stress shape energy 05:05 – Energy is dynamic, adaptive, and responsive to how you live 06:02 – Mitochondria as signal integrators: sleep, hormones, purpose, connection 06:50 – Mitochondria as antennas, not factories 07:16 – Translating life experience into biological energy 08:09 – Why we don't feel "energy," we feel energy flow 08:53 – Flow states, purpose, and why passion creates vitality 09:32 – Different organs, different mitochondrial roles 10:26 – Why energy optimization is not one-size-fits-all 10:49 – Energy resistance: the hidden cause of fatigue and burnout 11:47 – Chronic stress, poor sleep, and ultra-processed food as energy blockers 12:12 – Why recovery is non-negotiable for longevity 12:20 – Caldera Lab sponsor: clean, performance-driven skincare 14:20 – The danger of constant output without recovery 14:45 – Sleep as a mitochondrial reset and repair system 15:40 – Exercise, adaptation, and why recovery completes the signal 16:22 – Intentional stress vs. chronic stress 17:29 – Food as information, not just fuel 18:05 – Time-restricted eating, fresh food, and metabolic signaling 18:27 – Meaning, purpose, and emotional states as cellular inputs 19:23 – Mitochondria, aging, and the potential reversibility of decline 20:06 – SuperLife framework: alignment over optimization 20:37 – Consistency beats intensity at the cellular level 21:19 – Stable rhythms: sleep, nourishment, hydration, movement 21:45 – Stillness, meditation, and parasympathetic repair 22:35 – Growth requires both resistance and recovery 24:44 – Connection, community, and loneliness as biological signals 25:27 – Eliminating fatal conveniences to restore vitality 26:02 – Your mitochondria are listening—change the signals 26:21 – Honoring Huberman & Picard's contribution to human health 27:12 – Energy flow as the foundation of a SuperLife 28:11 – Closing reflections and invitation to apply this work     Thank You to Our Sponsors Therasage: Go to www.therasage.com and use code DARIN at checkout for 15% off Caldera Lab: Experience the clinically proven benefits of Caldera Lab's clean skincare regimen and enjoy 20% off your order by visiting calderalab.com/darin and using code DARIN at checkout.     Join the SuperLife Community Get Darin's deeper wellness breakdowns — beyond social media restrictions: Weekly voice notes Ingredient deep dives Wellness challenges Energy + consciousness tools Community accountability Extended episodes Join for $7.49/month → https://patreon.com/darinolien     Find More from Darin Olien: Instagram: @darinolien Podcast: SuperLife Podcast Website: superlife.com Book: Fatal Conveniences     Key Takeaway "Your mitochondria are not broken. They are responding perfectly to the signals you give them. Change the signals, and your energy, resilience, and life will follow."     Bibliography & Sources Here is the bibliography based on the sources referenced in the document, formatted with direct links to the scientific papers, books, and the podcast episode. Primary Source Material Huberman, A. (Host). (2025, December 15). Improve Energy & Longevity by Optimizing Mitochondria with Dr. Martin Picard [Audio/Video podcast]. Huberman Lab. Link to Episode Picard Lab. Mitochondrial Psychobiology Group. Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Link to Lab Website Key Scientific Literature & Books Hood, D. A., Memme, J. M., Oliveira, A. N., & Triolo, M. (2019). Exercise and Mitochondrial Biogenesis. Physiological Reviews, 99(1), 669–715. Read Study Lane, N. (2015). The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life. W.W. Norton & Company. Book Link López-Otín, C., Blasco, M. A., Partridge, L., Serrano, M., & Kroemer, G. (2013). The Hallmarks of Aging. Cell, 153(6), 1194–1217. Read Study Mattson, M. P., Moehl, K., Ghena, N., Schmaedick, M., & Cheng, A. (2018). Intermittent Metabolic Switching, Neuroplasticity and Brain Health. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 19, 63–80. Read Study Picard, M., & McEwen, B. S. (2018). Psychological Stress and Mitochondria: A Systematic Review. Psychosomatic Medicine, 80(2), 126–140. Read Study Picard, M., & Shirihai, O. S. (2022). Mitochondrial Psychobiology: Foundations and Applications. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 43, 102–110. Read Study Speakman, J. R., & Selman, C. (2011). The Free-Radical Damage Theory: Accumulating Evidence Against a Simple Link. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 26(1), 33–39. Read Study Wallace, D. C. (2015). Mitochondria and Cancer. Nature Reviews Cancer, 12, 685–698. (Note: Often referenced alongside his Annual Review of Genetics work on aging). Read Study

This is a double-flashback crossover episode! The 2016 Audio Advent Calendar plus its cousin holiday podcast series Twelve Days of Christmas - Regifted! November 2016. North Hollywood's El Portal Theatre was visited by a merry cast of talented voice actors, musicians, and audience members. There was chocolate (graciously provided by the delicious El Buen Cacao) and a wintry faerie who, with an audience volunteer, would announce each date to start off the story. We recorded twenty-five short, holiday-themed stories that night and the 2016 Audio Advent Calendar was born. It was too good to hear just once, so we reissued it the following year. And now it's back again, with its cheerful silliness and heartfelt hope! We hope you enjoy it again or anew, as much as we did making it! Winter 2019. We took the gifts listed in that famous carol, and divvied them up amongst our team of crackerjack writers to use as inspiration. The result? Twelve days of funny, moving, original pieces, beautifully performed and produced, for your holiday enjoyment. Holiday Season 2025. We lovingly remember super-human friend, artist, and writer Sherry Coben. "A Partridge in a Pear Tree - A True Story About My Best Friend Paulette" was written by Sherry Coben and performed by Silvie Zamora. Outro music for this episode is from "The Snow is Falling" by Jerry Ward, used by permission. Please visit LifeLabNotes.com for information about each date's story, its writer and performers, and the musicians who added their magic.  

Have you memorized all of the 12 Days of Christmas song? Did you know that these themes in the song had a deeper Catholic meaning? Prepare to get the song stuck in your head as you dive deep into some catechetical truths! Timmerie unveils the song's potential role as a secret catechism tool during times of Catholic persecution in England (1558-1829). This joyous melody might have served as a covert means for Catholic children to learn and remember their faith. Here's a breakdown of the hidden Catholic meanings in each verse: Partridge in a Pear Tree: Jesus Christ, the self-sacrificing savior. Two Turtle Doves: The Old and New Testaments, symbolizing the continuity and revelation of God’s word. Three French Hens: The theological virtues - Faith, Hope, and Charity. Four Calling Birds: The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Five Golden Rings: The Torah (first five books of the Bible.) Six Geese A-Laying: The six days of creation. Seven Swans A-Swimming: The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Eight Maids A-Milking: The Beatitudes Nine Ladies Dancing: The fruits of the Holy Spirit, condensed for memorability. Ten Lords A-Leaping: The Ten Commandments Eleven Pipers Piping: The eleven faithful Apostles (excluding Judas who betrayed the Lord. Twelve Drummers Drumming: The twelve articles of faith in the Apostles' Creed. Timmerie challenges you to not just enjoy the melody, but to delve into the rich tapestry of faith these verses represent. Try to work on memorizing all of these important aspects of our faith! It's an invitation to rediscover the depth and joy of the Catholic Church, especially in times of trial.

Special podcast about my birthday and Christmas and all kinds of other stuff.

The hilarious Rob Brydon tells us all about his new quiz show The Floor which airs in early 2026 and gets involved with......Primary School Bangers legend James B. Partridge feeding our festive spirit and serenades us into Christmas with some Christmas carols sung by Chris and the Class Behind The Glass!Wishing all our great listeners a Merry Christmas! Chris and The Class Behind The Glass are back Monday 5th January! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Celebrate Epiphany with your family through hands-on activities that bring the story of the Wise Men to life. In this episode, we'll explore creative crafts, thought-provoking questions, and global traditions to help your children understand the meaning of this special day.Learn how to incorporate the gifts of the Wise Men and act out the Nativity story together. Make Epiphany unforgettable with these fun and meaningful activities:✅ Questions to ponder during the 12 days of Christmas until Epiphany✅ 8 activities for families to celebrate Epiphany✅ Feast of Epiphany ideas✅ Create crafts like crown and star ornaments, stained glass windows, and glittery gifts✅ Explore the symbolism of frankincense, myrrh, and gold with sensory activities✅ Act out the Nativity story and discuss its significance with thought-provoking questions✅ Discover global Epiphany traditions and bring them into your own celebrationUse coupon code to save 40% on Christmas Celebrations & Star of Bethlehem. Expires Friday, Dec 19.Mentioned Links:Christmas Celebrations Ebook - SAVE 40% with code: DEC19Star of Bethlehem Family Bible Study Ebook - SAVE 40% with code: DEC19Posts to Help with Epiphany:Epiphany Traditions from our FamilyItalian Feast of EpiphanyShow Notes:What Is Epiphany and Why It MattersHey everyone, Kerry back here with Homeschool Coffee Break where we help you stop that overwhelm so you can actually have a coffee break. I actually have coffee with me today!Today what we are going to be talking about is how you can celebrate Epiphany and some of y'all are going, I don't even know what you're talking about. What in the world is Epiphany? We're gonna talk about Epiphany, but what I want to do is give you some hands-on activities. I think I have eight or nine activities that you can use.Because really, when this is published, we are smack dab in the middle of Christmas and New Year's. But there is something much more important than New Year's and that is the Feast of Epiphany on January 6th. That is almost a week away from when this is going to be published.Let's talk about what Epiphany is, how it can affect your family, how you can raise your kids to understand it. Because let me tell you, I had no idea till my kids were almost in high school what Epiphany was, what that feast was, what that holiday was.Understanding the 12 Days of ChristmasEpiphany is 12 days after Christmas. Ah, 12 Days of Christmas! It is not 12 days before Christmas—they are after Christmas. The Catholic church has a great handle on this and I am a Protestant and raise my kids in a Protestant church. And we don't, and I would like to help make a change with that because we need to give our kids the best Christian heritage.They need to know their church history. They need to know their Christian heritage. And if we are only letting certain denominations do that, then we are doing a disservice to our children.One of the things I have been thinking about just this past week, because I went to visit my middle daughter and her two grandkids, was what could I send to both the grandkid families to celebrate Epiphany. In the past, I've actually made 12 paper bags, like little brown paper bags, nothing big, to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas.Because if you don't know this, the 12 Days of Christmas have symbolism. You see, when it was written, people could not talk in public about Christ. So they wrote this song and they could sing the song because of the symbolism. Partridge in a pear tree—that's Jesus in the manger. The three French hens—that is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All 12 of them have significance. If you don't know what that is, then go and look. We've got a whole ebook about that and it'll be in the show notes.Celebrating the Wise Men's JourneyBut that is something I think is really important. What we want to focus on today is that 12th day, the day of Epiphany, the day we celebrate that the Wise Men followed the star and found Jesus. That was not in the manger. It was probably maybe a year or two later. And so we are going to celebrate that on January 6th.What are some things that you could do to celebrate that?Activity #1: Read and Study Matthew 2First of all, you could read Matthew 2:1-12. There are nine clues about what is that star. If you need help, you can get our Star of Bethlehem study guide—it is in the show notes as well.You could have your children copy all 12 verses. If they're young, one verse a day for 12 days. You could have them retell the story in their own words, narrate it back, or rewrite it in their own words. All of that based in Matthew 2:1-12.Activity #2: Crown and Star CraftsAnother thing is you could do some crafts. You can make a crown craft. Let me tell you, my grandkids love all of that! You could cut out a crown and let them decorate it with jewels and stickers and whatever, put it on their head. And they can be, if you have three of them, they can be the three wise men. Even one of them—we don't know that there were just three, there were just three gifts, so we assume there were three wise men.Another thing you could do is make a star ornament. And I will put a link in the show notes to some different star ornament things. It could be a black construction paper star and then put tissue paper inside of it with, what do you call that stuff, just a clear paper, and it will turn into a star stained glass. You can make a star out of foam and decorate it with glitter and jewels, whatever you want to do. There are lots of ways that you can make a star craft.Activity #3: Explore the Wise Men's GiftsNow let's move on. We've got: read the Bible first of all, number two: crafts. How about the Wise Men gifts? One of those gifts is frankincense. This is a bottle of frankincense oil. You could have your kids open it up, let them smell this. This is a healing oil, believe it. You may not believe in all the essential oils—this is a healing oil.Myrrh—I didn't grab my myrrh, I have a myrrh oil—but let them smell that. Talk about the difference in the smells. What is it used for? Do some research on how do you use frankincense, how do you use myrrh.Then the last gift is gold. Maybe do some research on the value of gold. How much does gold cost per ounce? What is the value of maybe a gold nugget? And start to bring it to real life today.Activity #4: Act Out the StorySo we've got: read the Bible, crafts, we've got the three wise men gifts. You could have them act out the story. Maybe the adults read Matthew 2 and the kids act it out. Or maybe they get their own figurines. All my kids have all the Fisher Price people and we've got stuffed ones out there, we got plastic ones, we got all sorts of figurines for our nativity sets. Let them use that and let them retell the story, act it out.Activity #5: Thought-Provoking QuestionsAnother thing might be just some thought-provoking questions. Here are three thought-provoking questions you could use:What do you think it was like to travel so far to see Jesus? You couldn't get in a plane, you couldn't get in a car or a train. You had to go by camel. What was that like? And let them talk about that.Why do you think the wise men brought gifts?How can we worship Jesus today?Those are just three quick questions. I'm sure there are plenty more, but those are some ones that you could use as you talk about this day of Epiphany.Activity #6: Explore Traditions Around the WorldMaybe look at what the traditions are around the world. In France, they have a king's cake and there's a ring inside that cake. Have a king's cake bake-off! Maybe let your kids all make cupcake king's cupcakes and have a bake-off and have a little judge who chooses first, second, third place.In Spain, they have parades. Do some research and see what are the other traditions for Epiphany around the world.Activity #7: Make Crown Cookies or SnacksAnother one of my favorite things, because it is food as we're talking about food, is to make some sugar cookies and cut them in the shape of a crown. I just bought this on Amazon years ago when I was having to do a lot of vacation Bible schools in the summertime and so I bought this.Another thing you could do besides, you could do it in sugar cookies and then use sprinkles to decorate it. I actually this past fall, we cut cheese in the shape of a crown and used grapes to decorate it. We cut the grapes up, or blueberries, I don't know what it was, some kind of fruit. That was the healthy version of a crown snack.Activity #8: Chalk the Door House BlessingAnother thing I just learned today is to have a house blessing. It is called Chalk the Door. Let's say there is a door here. You would write: 20+C+M+B+25. The 20 and the 25 are for 2025, that's the year we're in right now.What is CMB? Christus mansionem benedicat. That means "May Christ bless this dwelling." You could actually take chalk and put that above your front door. That is something they've been doing for years. And that would be something—maybe even look at what these words mean in Latin: Christus, mansionem, benedicat. And look those up and find out how it all relates to "May Christ bless this dwelling."Activity #9: The Feast of Epiphany with OrangesAnd then the last one, one of my favorites—I don't really have anything here to help you—but the Feast of Epiphany: use those little oranges, what are those little, uh, clementines, whatever, the little ones. My kids get them in their stocking all the time. Oranges represent light. Who is the light of the world? Jesus!And I have a whole blog post—I'm not going to go into it, you can go look at it—how you can create a Feast of Epiphany with a main dish, with an appetizer, with a fun dessert, yummy yummy, and then with the oranges as well. Because the oranges, open them up, they represent light.Start Simple and Build Your TraditionsSo those are just a few ways that you can celebrate Epiphany this year. None of them are extravagant. They are very simple, hands-on activities. You have almost a week—pick and choose one or two that you might want to do this year. And then next year you can do something different.Now for some of you, you're like, "I need a little more help." We have some resources! One is our Christmas Celebrations ebook. It tells what all 12 days are symbolized for and gives you some ideas about the Feast of Epiphany. We have our Star of Bethlehem Bible study for families, and so you can go through that. That Bible study is really more for Epiphany than it is for Christmas because it was the star the Wise Men followed to find Jesus.Also have a couple blog posts on Three Epiphany Traditions That We Did and our Italian Feast of Epiphany. So you can just look in the show notes to get all of those.If you have other ideas, leave a comment wherever you are! And if they don't let you leave comments, please leave a five-star review for us—that would mean the world to me. Hey, I'm Kerry Beck with Homeschool Coffee Break. We'll talk to you next time!

It's the most wonderful time… to talk plastic! In this year's Just Making Conversation Christmas special, Malcolm and James don their festive jumpers, pour something warm (or alcoholic), and catch up on all the hobby happenings as the year wraps up.They each share 5 gift ideas they'd give (or secretly want to receive), with plenty of banter, last-minute inspiration, and probably a few questionable choices. Whether you're shopping for a modeller or just looking for an excuse to treat yourself, this episode is stuffed fuller than a stocking with sprue-themed cheer.

1:40:48 – Frank in New Jersey, plus the Other Side. Topics include: Celebrities at a quarry, Captain Marvel, cool flea market, cruise ship, dark spirits, presidential video at a park back in time, light rail weirdness, snow, a mall and two hotels in Las Vegas, dangerous elevator, The Partridge Family’s store, Mrs. Partridge told me off, dangerous […]

Send us a textA forgotten reformer changed how we think about military education, then got written out of the story. We dig into Alden Partridge's bold vision for the citizen-soldier, why his mastery-based model threatened entrenched interests, and how his practical ideas—shorter paths for proven mastery, rigorous field training, and decentralized leadership—can still fix what's broken in today's force.Franklin Annis walks us through Partridge's rise at West Point during the War of 1812, the political crossfire that led to his court-martial, and his pivot to building militia-focused academies that influenced Norwich and VMI. We connect the dots to modern pain points: time-in-seat schooling that bores high performers, career assembly lines that miss real talent, and a headquarters culture that mistakes long hours for results. You'll hear how competency-based progression, pretesting, and mission command can restore merit, accelerate excellence, and respect the only irreplaceable resource—time.We also ground the conversation in philosophy and practice. Stoicism offers a leader's toolkit for fair discipline, self-accountability, and resilience under pressure. A constitutional view of defense argues for a lean active force backed by a trained, capable militia—an approach that can lower costs and improve readiness by leveraging real-world civilian skills found across the Guard and Reserve. And we wrestle candidly with standards and inclusion: equal dignity, equal rules, transparent consequences, and selection by performance.If you care about military education, talent management, or building better leaders faster, this conversation gives you a roadmap rooted in history and tested by experience. Subscribe, share with a teammate, and leave a review with the one change you'd make first—what would you accelerate, and what would you cut?Stories of Service presents guests' stories and opinions in their own words, reflecting their personal experiences and perspectives. While shared respectfully and authentically, the podcast does not independently verify all statements. Views expressed are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the host, producers, government agencies, or podcast affiliates.Support the showVisit my website: https://thehello.llc/THERESACARPENTERRead my writings on my blog: https://www.theresatapestries.com/Listen to other episodes on my podcast: https://storiesofservice.buzzsprout.comWatch episodes of my podcast:https://www.youtube.com/c/TheresaCarpenter76

1:40:48 – Frank in New Jersey, plus the Other Side. Topics include: Celebrities at a quarry, Captain Marvel, cool flea market, cruise ship, dark spirits, presidential video at a park back in time, light rail weirdness, snow, a mall and two hotels in Las Vegas, dangerous elevator, The Partridge Family’s store, Mrs. Partridge told me off, dangerous […]

The Inside Economics team unpacks the Federal Reserve's latest rate decision and the divergence of views among policymakers as they navigate the final stretch of 2025. Mark, Cris, and Marisa debate whether the FOMC's messaging was hawkish or dovish, assess whether a labor market shedding jobs can avoid recession, and explore what it all means for the path of interest rates in the year ahead. After a quick stats game, the trio tackles a few provocative listener questions. Hosts: Mark Zandi – Chief Economist, Moody's Analytics, Cris deRitis – Deputy Chief Economist, Moody's Analytics, and Marisa DiNatale – Senior Director - Head of Global Forecasting, Moody's AnalyticsFollow Mark Zandi on 'X' and BlueSky @MarkZandi, Cris deRitis on LinkedIn, and Marisa DiNatale on LinkedIn Questions or Comments, please email us at helpeconomy@moodys.com. We would love to hear from you. To stay informed and follow the insights of Moody's Analytics economists, visit Economic View. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The holidays are upon us but respiratory viruses like COVID-19, Flu, and RSV don't make great gifts. In this episode, Dr. Suzanne Bornschein, State Epidemiologist at the Rhode Island Department of Health, shares the best ways to keep viruses from spreading to our friends, to our loved ones, and in our communities. For more information and data, visit health.ri.gov/respiratoryviruses. 

At the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Ann Partridge, MD, MPH, presented research on the Young, Empowered & Strong (YES) mHealth tool designed to better meet the emotional and physical health needs of young people who've received breast cancer treatment. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Partridge explain: how people access the tool and how it works the specific symptoms the tool helped improve what's next for the tool

A shorter episode this week but that makes it the perfect length to listen to on your way to Holiday Shopping.  This week we go uplifting as we dig into the life of Beatrice 'Tillie' Shilling.  The child of a master butcher and one of thre girls born and raised in the South of England, she spent her pocket money on tools and penknives, deconstructed devices to see how they fit together and worked and played with Meccano sets, early construction toys allowing children to build working models of cars and cranes.  She would even win a competition for building from these kits.  By the age of 14, she bought her first motorcycle originally to beat her sisters in bike races.  But she tuned, tinkered and replaced every single part remaking the machine and soon was speeding around on it everywhere.  She began to study practical electronics and work in the field as young as 15, even going on to become an Engineer (in the 1930's when women just didn't do such things).  We cover the life of this amazing woman and how she saved both the Spitfire and the Hurricane, earned an OBE and hit the ton at Brooklands as a motorcycle racer in this uplifting, girl powerm yes it's in Surrey but there's no fringe on top episode of the Family Plot Podcast!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.

Dr. Alison Loren and Dr. Ann Partridge share the latest guideline from ASCO on the management of cancer during pregnancy. They highlight the importance of this multidisciplinary, evidence-based guideline and overarching principles for the management of cancer during pregnancy. Drs. Loren and Partridge discuss key recommendations from each section of the guideline, including diagnostic evaluation, oncologic management, obstetrical management, and psychological and social support. They also touch on the importance of this guideline and accompanying tools for clinicians and how this serves as a framework for pregnant patients with cancer. The conversation wraps up with a discussion on the unanswered questions and how future evidence will inform guideline updates.  Read the full guideline, "Management of Cancer During Pregnancy: ASCO Guideline" at www.asco.org/survivorship-guidelines TRANSCRIPT This guideline, clinical tools, and resources are available at www.asco.org/survivorship-guidelines. Read the full text of the guideline and review authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO-25-02115   Brittany Harvey: Hello and welcome to the ASCO Guidelines Podcast, one of ASCO's podcasts delivering timely information to keep you up to date on the latest changes, challenges, and advances in oncology. You can find all the shows, including this one, at asco.org/podcasts. My name is Brittany Harvey, and today I am interviewing Dr. Alison Loren from the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Ann Partridge from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, co-chairs on "Management of Cancer During Pregnancy: ASCO Guideline." Thank you for being here today, Dr. Loren and Dr. Partridge. Dr. Alison Loren: Thanks for having us. Dr. Ann Partridge: It's a pleasure. Brittany Harvey: And then just before we discuss this guideline, I would like to note that ASCO takes great care in the development of its guidelines and ensuring that the ASCO conflict of interest policy is followed for each guideline. The disclosures of potential conflicts of interest for the guideline panel, including Dr. Partridge and Dr. Loren who have joined us here today, are available online with the publication of the guideline in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, which is linked in the show notes. So then to dive into the meat of this guideline, to start us off, Dr. Loren, could you provide an overview of the scope and purpose of this new guideline on the optimal management of cancer during pregnancy? Dr. Alison Loren: Sure, thanks, Brittany. So this was really born out of I think a lot of passion and concern for this really vulnerable patient population. We have observed, and I am sure it is not any surprise to your audience, that the incidence of cancer in young people is increasing. And simultaneously, people are choosing to become pregnant at older ages, and so we are seeing more and more people with a cancer diagnosis during their pregnancy. And for probably obvious reasons, there is really no way to do randomized clinical trials in this population. And so really trying to assemble and articulate the best evidence for safely managing the diagnosis of cancer, the management of cancer once it is confirmed, being thoughtful about obviously the health of the mom, but also attending to potential risks to the developing fetus, and really just trying to be really comprehensive and balanced about all the choices for these patients when they are facing some really challenging decisions in a very emotionally fraught environment. And I think it is really emotionally fraught for the providers, too. You know, this is obviously an extremely intense, very emotional set of decisions, and so trying to provide a rudder essentially to sort of help people frame the questions and trying to make as evidence-based a set of recommendations as possible. Dr. Ann Partridge: And I would just add that "evidence-based" is a strong word here because typically our, as you just heard, our gold standard evidence is a randomized trial, but you can't do that in this setting, in general. And so, what we were able to do with the support of the phenomenal ASCO staff was to pull together kind of the world's literature on the safety and outcomes of treatments during pregnancy, as well as consensus opinion. And I think that is a really, really critical difference about this particular guideline compared to many of the other ones that ASCO does, where consensus and good judgment needed to kind of rule the day when evidence is not available. So, there is a lot of that in our recommendations. Dr. Alison Loren: That is such a good point. And I just, before we move forward, I just want to reflect that the composition of the panel was really broad and wide-ranging. We had maternal medicine specialists, we had legal and ethical experts, we had representatives who understand pharmaceutical industries' perspectives, and then medical oncologists representing the full spectrum of oncology diagnoses. And so it was a really diverse, in terms of expertise, panel, internationally composed to try to really get the best consensus that we could in the absence of gold standard evidence. Brittany Harvey: Absolutely. That multidisciplinary panel is really key to developing this guideline and, as you said, looking at the evidence and even though it does not reach the level of randomized trials, still critically evaluating it and reviewing that along with consensus to come up with optimal management for diagnosis and management of cancer during pregnancy. So then to follow that up, I would like to next review the key recommendations of the guideline across the main sections that the expert panel provided. First, I will throw this out to either of you, but what are the important general principles for the management of cancer during pregnancy? Dr. Ann Partridge: I think there were three major principles that we hammer home in the guidelines. One is that this is a team sport. It is multidisciplinary care that is necessary in order to optimize outcomes for the patient and potentially for the fetus. And that you really need to, from the beginning, bring in a coordinated team, including not just oncologists but obstetricians, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, neonatologists, ethics consultants, and obviously the patient and potentially her family. So that, I think, is one of the most important things. Second would be that obviously in a pregnancy, there are two potential patients and that the nuances of safety and risk from treatment is really wrapped up in where in the trimester of the pregnancy the patient is diagnosed, along with the kind of cancer that it is, both the urgency of treatment and the risk of the cancer, as well as the potential risks of any given intervention across the cancer continuum. It is a broad guideline in that regard. And then finally, and this is particularly timely given what is going on from a sociopolitical standpoint in the U.S., really thinking about informed consent and potential ethical as well as legal implications of some of the choices that patients might have when they are thinking about, in particular, continuing a pregnancy or potential termination. Dr. Alison Loren: And I will just add that I think that the key to all of this guidance is nuance and individualization and also making sure that patients and their care providers understand all the choices that are available to them and also the consequences of those choices. You know, nobody would choose to receive chemotherapy during pregnancy if that wasn't necessary. So there are risks to treatment, but there are also risks to not treatment. And making sure that in a suboptimal situation where you do not have a lot of evidence, trying to weigh, the best you can, the risks and benefits of all of the choices so that the patient can come to a decision about the treatment plan that is right for her. Brittany Harvey: Definitely. And those core concepts really set the stage for individualized care on what is necessary for appropriate multidisciplinary care, prioritizing both patient autonomy and informed decision making. With those core concepts and key principles in mind, I would like to move into the recommendations section of the guideline. So what are the key recommendations regarding diagnostic evaluation for pregnant patients with signs or symptoms of cancer? Dr. Alison Loren: I think the most important thing is to not delay, that there are very careful and well-thought-out recommendations for how to evaluate a potential cancer. And while there are certain things that we know can be harmful, particularly when certain dose thresholds are exceeded - for instance, abdominal imaging, there are certain radiographic thresholds that you don't want to exceed because of risk of harm to the embryo or fetus - there are still lots of options for diagnosing cancer during pregnancy. And again, thinking about the costs of not doing versus the cost of doing, right? It is really important to make the diagnosis of cancer if that is a consideration or a concern. And sometimes going directly to biopsies or getting definitive studies, even if there is a small risk to the developing fetus, is really essential because if the mom does not survive, of course, the fetus is also not going to survive. And so we need to be thinking first about the patient who is sitting in front of us, the woman who needs to know what is going on in her body so she can make good decisions about her health. So, I think that is a key principle in thinking about this. Brittany Harvey: Absolutely. So, following that diagnosis of a new or recurrent cancer, what is recommended for oncologic management of patients who are diagnosed with cancer during their pregnancy? Dr. Ann Partridge: So, I think the general principle is, again, cancer is such a wide number of diseases and even within diseases, a range of stages and risks and associated opportunities for risk reduction and/or treatment depending on the type of cancer. Just by example, in the work that I do, which is breast cancer, once someone has had a surgery in the early-stage setting, a lot of our treatment is about risk reduction. And that is very different than from what Alison does, which is treating people with leukemia, where it is kind of binary. If you do not treat, including with cytotoxic drugs, the patient and an unborn fetus will die, especially early in the pregnancy, obviously. So this is where cancers are very, very different. So I think taking the approach of what would you do if the patient were not pregnant? And what is the best treatment for that particular patient with that particular kind of cancer? And then applying the pregnancy and where the patient is in that pregnancy in terms of the trimester of the pregnancy, and what is safe and what is unsafe from the options that you would give her if she were not pregnant. And then if the patient is choosing to keep the pregnancy, which in my practice, many people come and they come to me because they want to hold onto their pregnancy and want to figure out how to make it work, coming up with a regimen that tries to give them kind of the best bang for the buck, the best possible breast cancer therapy with the least harm, when possible, to the fetus. It is a bit of a balance, right? And then we cannot always give people the best approach. And sometimes it comes down to making a decision to give up something that may improve their survival so as not to harm the fetus. And sometimes it goes the opposite direction where a patient will say, "Oh, that is going to improve my survival by 5% and you can't give it to me now? I am going to choose to terminate." Even though that is obviously a very, very difficult and challenging decision to make in this setting because they want to optimize their survival and ideally live on to potentially have another pregnancy in the future if that is something that is of interest to her. So these are really, really hard conversations as you can imagine, but that is kind of where we go. Dr. Alison Loren: Yeah, and I think this is where the need for more research and understanding is really key because sometimes questions come up. I guess I am thinking about like HER2-directed agents, which we know are contraindicated in pregnancy. But what about sequencing? Does it matter when you get it? Can you get it later? I think that is something that we don't really fully understand. And similarly, again, this is obviously like a breast cancer and blood cancer focused discussion because that is what we do, but thinking about managing blood cancers, certainly with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, there is actually a lot of options now that, you know, you could potentially use to temporize or sort of get somebody through a pregnancy relatively safely. I am focusing on the word "relatively" because we do not know what the long-term impact might be of potentially not optimal therapy in the long run. And then thinking about other things like timing of a bone marrow transplant relative to either delivery or termination. I mean, again, we really do not know what are the right sets of sort of timing considerations for those. So there are just a lot of unknowns. And I think trying to be sort of self-aware and humble and honest about those unknowns so that the patient can engage in the conversation in a way that is meaningful to her and make the decisions that make the most sense for her. I think the most important thing is to make sure that the patient feels supported and safe to make those decisions with as little regret as possible. Brittany Harvey: Yes, I think it is really important that you mentioned that there is a wide range of cancers here, and that means that care really needs to be individualized for each patient. I will also note, just in this section, that I found really informative while reading through the guideline the list of oncologic agents that may be offered in each individual trimester, whether it is contraindicated or it can be used with caution, or if there is relatively good safety data on it for prioritizing maternal treatment needs and balancing fetal safety at the same time. I think that is, that is really key. And I think readers will really like that section of the guideline to provide concrete information for them and their patients. Dr. Alison Loren: Thank you. We actually spent a lot of time on that table and just thinking about what it should look like, what the format ought to be, what the language ought to be. Because of course, at the end of the day, everything should be used with caution. So what does that actually mean? And we sort of tried to explicate that a little bit in like the footnotes. We really tried to leverage what we know from clinical experience, from package labels, from mechanism of action to try to be as clear and definitive as we could be without overstating or understating what we know. Dr. Ann Partridge: Yeah, and I think we are focusing on breast and leukemia because that is what we do. But the truth is much of the data comes from those two areas. Leukemia, not because it is so common, but because you do not really have choices to treat or not treat. And so for decades, they have been treating and saying, "We hope the progeny comes out okay." And for many agents it does. The babies are okay. And so, we have reasonable observational data. And then in breast cancer, there have been actually some prospective registry-type studies where people have been followed and treated when pregnant, and the progeny have been accounted for, and so we have some good experience in that way too. Again, not randomized trials, but at least data that suggests certain agents are safe. And increasingly, because of that, when we have had to treat patients, we have said, "Okay, let us do it on this registry so that we can at least learn from every patient that comes in in this situation." And so, I think we will have more and more data given the growing number of young adults with cancer and the delays in childbearing that are happening around the world, and particularly in Westernized countries. I wish we did not. We wish we did not see this problem, but of course, when we do, we have to make sure that we learn from it and try and get patients enrolled in these registries and any kinds of studies that are available. Dr. Alison Loren: Yeah, I will just underscore that to say that, you know, there is outcomes of pregnancy and then there is outcomes of pregnancy, right? So there is like, "Okay, the baby was born with 10 fingers and 10 toes, and they passed their Apgar, and they are doing all their developmental processes along the way." But what happens when they are 10 or 15 or 20? Are they maturing normally? Are they cognitively intact? And then, of course, it is really inseparable from what is the impact on a family of having the mom with cancer? And how does that impact childhood development and intellectual development? And so these are really, really important questions that are very difficult to answer given the longitudinal information that you need, but it is a really critical question that, you know, patients ask and we do not know the answer. Dr. Ann Partridge: Yeah, that actually leads me to one of the important principles in the guideline that is a little bit of a change from when I first started practicing, which is we have learned from the wider neonatology literature, as they have followed up on the children that were born prematurely, that it is actually better not to be premature and to keep the baby in utero as long as it is safe for the fetus and the mother as long as possible, ideally to term rather than delivering early and then giving the chemo after that or separating the chemo from before and after. We used to try and deliver early and then give agents, but now we typically will give agents that are safe to be given at the end of pregnancy, ideally close to term, a couple weeks out, to allow for the ability of count recovery, and you do not want to go into preterm labor with chemotherapy on board, but we used to go much earlier and have an argument with our maternal-fetal medicine doctors. "How early can you get them out?" And they would say, "How long can they stay in?" And increasingly, we have been able to try and compromise to go even later and allow the fetus to go to term because of the neonatal outcomes that in longer term there is a suggestion that the children are developing better in the long run if they are kept in utero for as long as possible. Dr. Alison Loren: Yeah, that is such a great point. I think that is probably the most important thing for people to take away. For anyone who sort of does this, I mean, no one does this regularly because it is a rare event, although I think it is increasing as I mentioned. But this idea that the third trimester is, most of us know, is primarily a time for growth. Most of the critical development has already occurred, and so administering most chemotherapy agents towards the end of the third trimester seems to be preferable long term than delivering them early. So that is a really big change. I think we used to try to sort of, "Oh, get them to 30 or 32 weeks and then deliver," but we really are trying to get them closer to term, 37 weeks or more, and then coordinating the treatment so that they are not nadiring, as Ann said, at the time of planned delivery. Brittany Harvey: Yes, and that is a really important point related to evidence-based care and why we have changed that practice. And so then that actually leads nicely into my next question. But as you both mentioned, this is an important collaboration between oncologists and obstetricians. So the next section of the guideline addresses obstetrical practice. And so beyond what is standard, what additional recommendations are there in obstetrical management for pregnant patients with cancer? Dr. Alison Loren: That is a great question. So I will say we were really struggling with like how much do we cover? Like this is an oncology guideline. We are not obstetricians. We certainly had great representation from our maternal-fetal medicine colleagues on the panel. But really trying to sort of give useful information without overstepping. And so I think that the main recommendations are to increase the frequency of fetal monitoring, make sure that there is close attention to blood counts in the patient. But I think there is really still a gap in terms of what we know about optimal management of a pregnant person who is receiving therapy and how to handle the pregnancy itself. The delivery should be a usual delivery. Our colleagues did not recommend a planned C-section. They recommended usual care in terms of planning for the delivery. Obviously, if a C-section is indicated, then it should be done, but it should not be planned this way because of the cancer diagnosis. And I guess the other thing that we mentioned in the guideline, although we were reluctant to push it too hard because of access to these specialized services, was evaluating the placenta after birth to ensure that there were no metastases in the placenta itself. Dr. Ann Partridge: Those are the main things, and judicious and prudent obstetrical care, as I think, you know, is trying to be practiced regularly with MFM. Typically these patients should be followed not by your average OB/GYN, but a maternal-fetal medicine specialist because these patients will have special concerns, especially if they are sick. So oftentimes, especially Alison's patients, are actually sick with leukemia. And so you are monitoring them a lot, whereas, you know, a breast cancer patient typically isn't sick, although they could get sick with their chemotherapy. And so we really want to hand-in-hand manage these patients with our MFM colleagues. Dr. Alison Loren: I think we also highlighted in the guideline just for the refresher purposes of the oncology community, generally which drugs that would be given in a normal oncology setting are safe to be given to a pregnant person. So we talked a little bit about what kinds of steroids are recommended, antiemetics, DVT prophylaxis, peripartum. These are things that we think about a lot in oncology, but just want to make sure that it sort of intersected appropriately with the care of a pregnant patient. Brittany Harvey: Definitely. That specialized care is really important for patients who are pregnant and have cancer. And then the last section of the recommendations addresses psychological and social support. As you both mentioned before, this is a highly emotional time and it can be difficult and challenging to make decisions. So what is recommended for the psychological and social support of pregnant patients with cancer? Dr. Ann Partridge: Well, as I said, it is really something that needs to be considered at the beginning, through the diagnostic period, all the way into survivorship. Ironically, even though it is a highly fraught, emotional situation, I find that my pregnant patients actually are extraordinarily resilient, and what they are really focused on often is the safety of the fetus, because again, many of the people that come to me, it is a highly wanted pregnancy. They are also focused on their own health, of course, and often you need to bring in social work, sometimes a psychologist, professionals who are there just to help manage their emotions while we are focusing on what do they need medically to be as healthy as possible, both for the again, the mother, the patient, and the fetus. It is very tricky, and I will say also bringing in sometimes people on the ethics team in the hospital to help, both from the "Are you recommending and giving something that is safe?" That is number one. And then number two, sometimes patients want to be treated with drugs that we do not have any safety data for in pregnancy. What are our obligations? I think most of us would say we would not treat someone if we do not have safety data and there is suspicion for concern. But where is that line in terms of the right thing to do by that patient? And so we are all beholden to our ethics colleagues to help us when we make decisions like that. You know, we all want to do right by the patient, but we have to uphold our oaths and legal obligations. I don't know if you have to add on that because it's very tricky. Dr. Alison Loren: It is, it is very hard. I mean, I think, you know, there is a lot of emotion, obviously any cancer diagnosis is extremely charged and people are already at sort of a heightened, you know, they are anticipating a new baby and planning around that. And so it is just an extremely disruptive is the smallest word I can think of to describe it. And I think that often there is a co-parent, there might be parents and in-laws and other siblings, and then there is care after delivery. And so it is just a very complex set of dynamics. And having both our ethics colleagues and our psychology and social work colleagues to sort of just pitch in and make sure that the patient is being supported. I think there are sometimes really difficult situations where maybe what the patient wants is different from what the father of the baby wants or what the rest of the family wants. And so that can be really challenging. And you never really know where those landmines are going to pop up. So it is good to have the team on board early and often. Dr. Ann Partridge: Yeah, I would add to that, the other thing here that I think is really important, like in all of medicine but especially in situations like this, this is where we have to be very careful as professionals not to impose our own ethical, moral, emotional, personal views on the patient and to try to reserve judgment as much as possible. We are their navigator with the most important evidence and information that we can provide in the current situation. And that is where this guideline is extraordinarily helpful, we hope, for clinicians in the years to come. And at the same time, we cannot necessarily impose our own views and what we would do on a patient or what we tell our daughters, sisters, friends, family members. It is very tricky in that way. And so sometimes not just support for the patient, but support for the care team may be warranted in some of these very fraught situations. Dr. Alison Loren: Yeah, that is such a great point. And I was sort of thinking that too. I mean, it is, of course, the patient is front and center, but these are really difficult situations to navigate. And I will just add also that a lot of times these patients end up in academic centers, which I think is that's where the expertise or even just the experience may be. But the downside of that is that, you know, the teams are constantly changing. You have a new resident, you have a new intern, you have a new attending, a new fellow. And so, you know, the patients may be subjected to lots of different ways of communicating and sometimes those perceived differences can be really challenging. So sort of team huddles to sort of make sure that everybody is reading from the same script and everyone is comfortable with how the information is being presented so that the patient does not feel more confused or more overwhelmed, that they are kind of getting a consistent message from the whole team that, "This is what we know, this is what we are recommending, here are your other choices, and here are the pros and cons of each of these options." Brittany Harvey: Yes, I think you have both touched on this and that bringing in appropriate experts to support both clinicians and patients and their decision-making and their mental health is really important for this section of the guideline. We have already discussed this a fair bit throughout our conversation, but in your view, what is the importance of this guideline and how will it impact both clinicians and pregnant patients diagnosed with cancer? Dr. Ann Partridge: I could start with that. We just talked about experts and having them all around, but the fact is most people do not have the experts all around when they are dealing with this. And I think this is, you know, an expert-based, evidence-based guideline where having this in one's back pocket, whether you are in rural Montana or at a major cancer center on either coast, you will be armed with the latest and the greatest in terms of what we know and what we do not know, and some very helpful algorithms for how to think through the process of dealing with a patient who is diagnosed during pregnancy, whichever type of cancer it is. We could not cover every single specific thing about every cancer, although it is a pretty long guideline and there is a lot of nuance in there. So you might find a lot about specific cancers. And I think that that will be very, very helpful for people who are faced with this situation in the clinics just to frame it out, think through. Sometimes there is no answer that is the perfect answer and then, you know, using this as kind of a scaffolding and phoning a friend who may have more experience to help guide you and guide the patient, most importantly. I think it will be very helpful in that regard. Dr. Alison Loren: Yeah, I think so too. And I have talked about that we are working on this guideline and the anecdotal feedback has been, "This is so helpful." Like there really has not been, I think, an all-in-one place, diagnostic considerations, radiographic considerations, staging, treatment, all the modalities, surgical, radiation, systemic chemotherapy. We tried to include, when we could, novel agents including targeted agents and monoclonal antibodies and bispecifics and cellular immunotherapies and non-cellular immunotherapies. We really, really tried to cover in 2025 what are people using to treat cancer and to try to give the most balanced view of what we think is is safe or reasonably safe and what we think is either unproven or known to be risky, really to have it be kind of a go-to, like all-in-one, as much information as we have about these really challenging cases. We tried to include, Ann mentioned, you know, specific cancers, and I think when there were specific things to shout out with specific cancers, we really tried to highlight that. Like, "Okay, lots of young patients with cancer have Hodgkin's lymphoma, so what is safe and what is not for that specific case?" Or, "What is safe or what is not when you are thinking about colon cancers?" And we have a shout-out in here about considering checking for DPD deficiencies in patients who are pregnant. And I know it is generally recommended nowadays, but certainly for people who are pregnant, you know, you really want to avoid excess toxicity. So I think just really trying to be attentive to specifics about certain cancers in young patients and what would be valuable for a practicing oncologist and obstetrician to know when you are faced with this situation. Dr. Ann Partridge: Yeah, and I think the other critical thing that is great about this guideline is it's a starting place. And I anticipate that we will be building on this guideline for many years to come. And remember that when first, I was not around then, but probably three or four decades ago, when chemotherapy was just coming out and patients were coming in pregnant, there was a feeling I am sure that was, "We cannot give this to this person because it is purposefully going to destroy cells. And when you destroy cells in a growing fetus, you are going to destroy or harm that fetus." And yet, people did not have great choices. It was get treated or die, especially with things like leukemia early on. And bold patients along with their oncologist said, "Bring it on." And that is how some of this literature has been born. And so moving forward, there will be either purposeful exposures or inadvertent exposures of some of our therapies where we will learn ultimately. And this is a place where we can update these guidelines. That is the beautiful thing about the ASCO guidelines is that they are constantly being thought about to be updated. And then when there is enough of a change in practice, they will be updated such that they will continue to inform how we do this in the years to come for patients who come in pregnant. Dr. Allison Loren: Yeah, and I will say I have been doing this long enough now, we were just talking about a different guideline, the fertility guideline earlier today, and over the 20 years that the fertility guidelines have been out, just the amount of research has really skyrocketed. And you can see as you look at each guideline how much we have learned, what we can say, "Yes, this is working," "No, this is not working." Like, it is stuff that we used to say, "Oh, we do not really know," and now we have answers.  I think I speak for both of us when I say that we are hopeful that this will serve as, as Ann said, as a starting off point and really inspire people to ask the questions and do the research so that we can give better guidance moving forward, really trying to think about, you know, mechanisms and leaning on our colleagues in pharma and in the government who sort of think about safety and efficacy, to sort of make sure that they are contemplating not just non-pregnant patients, but also pregnant patients or as they are thinking about marking the package inserts with safety guidelines around this. Brittany Harvey: Yes, this is a critically important first guideline on the management of cancer during pregnancy, and we will look forward to continuing to build on that. I think as you mentioned, this guideline is far-reaching and has a lot of recommendations in it. And so both the full text of the guideline and those at-a-glance algorithms, figures, and tables will be really useful for clinicians in their clinic. Finally, to wrap us up, we have just been discussing this a little bit, but specifically, what are the outstanding questions on the management of pregnant patients with cancer, and where is this further research needed? Dr. Alison Loren: There are lots and lots and lots of unanswered questions. And I think if you look at the table, most of what we say is, "We are pretty sure this is okay, we are not so sure about this." I am paraphrasing, but we really just are operating in a paucity of what we would normally consider gold-standard evidence. It is hard to imagine, of course, there would ever be, as we mentioned in the beginning, randomized trials. But I think that preclinical data, mechanistic data, trying to think about including as we go through animal data, making sure that we are looking at female animals and pregnant animals so that we can sort of fully understand what the impact may be. And then I think thinking about more localized therapies around sort of radiation, you know, we are now moving into really hyper-focused radiation treatments like protons. Is that better because there is less scatter? Like I think those are real considerations that we just do not know the answer to. What do you think? Dr. Ann Partridge: I think so many unanswered questions, and this is a call to action to continue to and increase the documentation of the experiences and outcomes for patients diagnosed during pregnancy. Dr. Alison Loren: Yeah, and I think the long-term outcomes too are really going to be critical. Brittany Harvey: Yes, we will look forward to learning about more evidence across the spectrum of care to inform future updates to this guideline. So I want to thank you both so much for your work to develop this guideline, to review the extensive amounts of literature that you did, and work to create this guideline. And thank you also for your time today, Dr. Loren and Dr. Partridge. Dr. Alison Loren: Thanks. It was fun. Dr. Ann Partridge: Yeah, thank you. Brittany Harvey: And finally, thank you to all of our listeners for tuning into the ASCO Guidelines Podcast. To read the full guideline, go to www.asco.org/survivorship-guidelines. You can also find many of our guidelines and interactive resources in the free ASCO Guidelines app, which is available in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. If you have enjoyed what you have heard today, please rate and review the podcast and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. 

Trump is stumbling politically, telling people things are fine when they aren't, and the GOP is going to pay for it in the midterms. Plus, how the president can right the ship.

Catch “The Drive with Spence Checketts” from 2 pm to 6 pm weekdays on ESPN 700 & 92.1 FM. Produced by Porter Larsen. The latest on the Utah Jazz, Real Salt Lake, Utes, BYU + more sports storylines.

Zack Partridge on this week's fight card for Fierce Friday night at the SLC Masonic temple + more

On today's 12.3.25 show: One of our listeners wants to get under some mistletoe with Chidi, we discuss whether daily posting of your Elf on the Shelf is cool or not, TSA has a new option for flyers that don't have their Real ID, Selena gives a full breakdown of the new Diddy Documentary on Netflix, a Waymo in SF hit a dog over the weekend, some new research on the benefits and pitfalls of being a singer, and so much more!

And Yet Another Partridge in a Pear Tree

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Clinton Township police are trying to track down a man wanted for in a shooting at Partridge Creek Mall on Sunday night. WWJ's Jackie Paige has your Monday morning news. (Photo credit: WWJ)

Send us a textIn this episode of The Unrestricted Podcast, host DreRawka sits down with Zack Partridge — MMA fighter, matchmaker, and promoter for Fierce Fighting Championship, Utah's leading MMA organization.Zack opens up about his recent fight in New Jersey, his life as a fight promoter, and what it takes to grow the Fierce FC brand into one of the most respected regional promotions in the country. We also dive into the state of Utah MMA, upcoming Fierce events, and how Zack balances life inside and outside the cage.This conversation is full of insight, motivation, and behind-the-scenes stories from one of the most influential figures in Utah's combat sports scene.

Send us a textIn this episode of The Unrestricted Podcast, host DreRawka sits down with Zack Partridge — MMA fighter, matchmaker, and promoter for Fierce Fighting Championship, Utah's leading MMA organization.Zack opens up about his recent fight in New Jersey, his life as a fight promoter, and what it takes to grow the Fierce FC brand into one of the most respected regional promotions in the country. We also dive into the state of Utah MMA, upcoming Fierce events, and how Zack balances life inside and outside the cage.This conversation is full of insight, motivation, and behind-the-scenes stories from one of the most influential figures in Utah's combat sports scene.

Catch “The Drive with Spence Checketts” from 2 pm to 6 pm weekdays on ESPN 700 & 92.1 FM. Produced by Porter Larsen. The latest on the Utah Jazz, Real Salt Lake, Utes, BYU + more sports storylines.

We were joined by Bob Partridge and Gretchen Tellman who are Board Members for LMCU. They talked about the impact that American Dunes has had on them, told us about their connection to Golf, talked about LMCU and their core values, and much more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The executive for the Fierce Fighting Championship on Friday night's card at the SLC Masonic Temple + more

What happens when a work of fiction becomes a real grimoire? In this episode, we explore The Demons of the Necronomicon, H. P. Lovecraft's imagined pantheon of cosmic entities and their extraordinary transformation into living figures within modern occultism. Drawing on peer-reviewed research, we trace how Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, and Nyarlathotep escaped the pages of pulp horror to become objects of ritual, devotion, and philosophical speculation. From Kenneth Grant's Typhonian Thelema to chaos magic's postmodern experiments, this video unveils how fiction, faith, and imagination converge in the making of contemporary demonology.CONNECT & SUPPORT

Movie reviews #55Eight movies today, can you believe it.1 (Brewster Mcloud 1970) Very early Robert Altman film here where the amazing Margret Hamilton plays a racist jerk. Another early 70's offering that's quite trippy and political 2 (Three sisters 1970) A hard to watch production of an Anton Chekhov novel, I may have slept through this in high school. It is cool to me only because It stars the Grandma mechanic from (I love you to death),3 (Legend of Boggy Creek 1972) Tagline, Rated G Hick, Bigfoot movie, barely.4 (Man who fell to Earth 1976) Rip Torn, Buck Henry, and Candy Clark star in this sci if classic, that we should all see in the theater once. Almost forgot about the guy who wants the baby in Labyrinth, he's here too. JK fam Bowie's cool (rest in space).5 (Sammy 1977) These Jesus films crack me up as a recovering Catholic it always amuses me, among other things. This one got a theatrical release. please listen to hear how much money it made opening weekend, I believe it will put a smile on yer face. 6 (Soldier of Orange 1977) Our first Paul Verhoeven film. I remember this being very good, but not much else. the guy who wants “more life, fucker.” In Blade Runner is young and joins the Dutch resistance.7 (Yesterdays Child 1977) This made for tv movie is deliciously bizarre. Starring the mom of the Partridge family and the General from Planet of the Apes 5.8 (Dummy 1979) Worf's human brother, Geordie La'Forge, and the dip shit cop who goes after John Jay Rambo and doesn't bring a bunch O body bags, star in this rad film about tryin to fight Ableism in the halls of justice. Thanks for listening.

At a time of renewed interest in the spiritual, what could challenge the uninspiring notion of ‘cultural Christianity'? One answer is by embracing the esoteric. William Blake, the painter and poet, has become a model for a new kind of rebellious spirituality. Though he spent his life in poverty and obscurity, Blake's radical vision of the divine is now a cornerstone of modern mysticism. Psychotherapist and podcaster Mark Vernon, author of ‘Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination', and religion researcher, Esmé Partridge, talk in a masterclass, hosted by Unherd in London, on the meaning and mythos of Blake.0:00 What world Blake was responding to2:15 What did Blake mean by Newton's sleep?5:28 How did Blake see the natural world?8:30 Why did Blake react against the Christianity of his day?11:50 Understanding “The Garden of Love”13:50 Understanding “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”16:50 Blake against the ills of today: sentimentality and unforgivingness18:40 The road of excess and erotic desire21:47 Navigating the contrary tensions of life25:15 Blake's mythological figures29:30 What about Los and Jerusalem?32:30 What about Blake's view of politics and revolution?36:50 How do you cleanse the doors of perception?40:20 So in what way was Blake Christian?43:46 How did William and Catherine support themselves?46:52 How do we distinguish between imagination and fantasy?49:51 How can Blake be helpful to modern psychology?52:30 How can Blake help us reach for the eternal?56:10 How can Blake bring meaning to life?57:30 What would Blake make of Nietzsche?1:00:00 What would Blake make of Spinoza?1:01:30 Can we diagnose Blake and his visions?1:03:20 What about Blake and cultural Christianity today?1:05:30 What did Blake make about violence?1:07:43 Can you say more about Catherine Blake?1:09:30 Blake's wit about his visions1:10:54 Can you comment on Blake and Englishness?

emocleW, emocleW, emocleW to the Distraction Pieces Podcast with Scroobius Pip!This is your bonus FRIDAY REWIND episode! Today, we catch up with Armando Iannucci, originally episode 174 from 2017-10-24.Original writeup below:Responsible for an insane amount of some of the greatest UK comedy since the 90's, including the writing and production of 'The Day Today' which spawned Alan Partridge and the Partridge multiverse, 'The Thick Of It', 'Time Trumpet', and US based 'Veep', Armando is clearly a titan of the game. With his new production 'The Death Of Stalin' (in cinemas NOW!), he's been grinding it out on the media promo run, but is sharp as a katana as he sits down with Pip for a nice long chat covering all the necessary bases and loads more that you'd hope to hear about, including said promo run grind and the madness of it all, especially seeing your own film countless times, being mindful of not using the victims of the subject of his film for comedy and finding that material from many various other sources, social media and how the echo chamber is reinforced and debate is fading, how the film draws parallels with today's US presidency even though it was filmed months before Trump's election win, and how to successfully wrangle an all star cast in order to promote efficiency on set. Tons more obviously but yeah, super entertaining and a must for Armando fans and those who appreciate the craft of writing and production. Get into it!PIP'S PATREON PAGE if you're of a supporting natureIMDBVEEPTHE DEATH OF STALININ THE LOOPTIME TRUMPETDAN LE SAC VS SCROOBIUS PIP BANDCAMPPIP TWITCH • (music stuff)PIP INSTAGRAMSPEECH DEVELOPMENT WEBSTOREPIP TWITTERPIP IMDBPOD BIBLE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

if you're familiar with Porch Talk, you are familiar with these two songwriters. Abe Partridge is a singer/songwriter, folk artist, podcaster, and historian from Mobile, AL. Jason Humphres is a singer/songwriter and farmer from NE Mississippi and NW Alabama. Alan had Abe and Jason come to his store and play "Closed on Sundays", a music series that takes place at Al's Spirits & Music.abepartridge.comSubscribe, rate, and review the show!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/porch-talk/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nat, Ben & Prop-O are coming off the back of a mixed week of Drew Locks, so feel the need for backup...enter TalkSport's Will Varney to add some professionalism to proceedings! Nat establishes Will's Gen Z credentials, before following up with a Partridge-esque tale involving him and some risque karoake lyrics before they finally get down to some football chat. Were the Titans right to fire Brian Callahan so soon into the season? Who are the front runners for a head coaching gig next season? The fellas also complement last week's AFC Playoff picks with the NFC selections this week - unsurprisingly, they're not in total agreement. They turn their attention to Week 7 and make their picks including the NFL London game - live on FIVE from 14-00 with Nat, Osi and the crew - plus a whole host of selections from the slate. Prop-O drops his props, the team look for back to back acca wins, and Dutts drops by with his fantasy picks for the FanTeam DFS comps! Speaking of which.... To back any of the action in the show, sign up for our brand new partners FanTeam, hit the link : ⁠⁠⁠https://af.fanteam.com/click?o=1&a=99082&c=1⁠⁠⁠ - use the code RUSH to unlock special offers for followers of The NC Show inc £30 of free bets with any £10 bet. 18+, please play responsibly, BeGambleAware.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Skip Intro comes to New York this week to talk to Louis Partridge of Enola Holmes fame. Partridge takes on the role of Edward Guinness in the new series House of Guinness. He also stars as Wickham in Netflix's upcoming Pride & Prejudice adaptation, as well as the younger Billy Crudup character in Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly. The 22-year-old actor shares what it was like to meet his first casting director, playing rugby and being mischievous in school, and his girlfriend's funny American accent. Video episodes available on Still Watching Netflix YouTube Channel. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.

EVENT REMINDERS: Come see me in CHICAGO TONIGHT at 6PM. U-M Club of Fairfield is hosting an online Q&A at noon tomorrow. And then Monday, August 25 is U-M Club of Greater Detroit's kickoff w/ me, Isaiah and Henschke, and hosted by Ira. Things Discussed: The NCAA's NOA: Not surprised it was nonsense; not surprised it was just money because they can't risk operating this anywhere that facts matter. Surprised how little they actually had. They only had one two witnesses, both of them whom the report called liars, for Signgate, and one witness, whom the report also called a liar. Whenever evidence was presented it undermined their conclusions. This was, from the start, about getting Harbaugh out of college football, because he was not wired for putting up with their bullshit. Sherrone--and this comes off in the report and in his response--is one who knows how to play ball. That's all they want: is for you to tell them they're relevant. If you play ball (Sherrone, Compliance, Partridge) they praise you; if you expose them for the frauds they are, they'll do all they can. Nobody still staying it mattered is someone you ever have to listen to again. Michigan got better without Stalions. They were that good because they were better football players. I never want to hear Stalions's name again, because it just takes away from the actual accomplishments of Mike Sainristil. Game in Germany? Not 100% sure it's happening. Me: whatever. I'm not gonna go to Europe to see one of my teams; I want to go to Europe to see Europe.  Savion Hiter: The balance stands out. He has a Beastquake on his highlights: Reminds me of watching Ricky Powers as a kid. Comp will probably be Corum. Big Nickel: The math is when on offense removes a slot for a TE they still have a lot of receiving ability on the field; when Michigan matches by removing a DB for a DT they now have to match the TE with somebody else, and thus far it's been the SAM: Harrell, Stewart, Guy. Offenses in the NFL have been exploiting that so defenses have come up with big nickels (e.g. Kyle Hamilton) in place of their SAMs who still have the length to hold an edge in the run game against a TE but can also cover a TE down the field. Mason Curtis has the perfect build for it. Questions people ask on the road? How good is Bryce, what will the offense look like, who is this guy Craig Ross?

1 hour and 53 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. We have to talk about the NCAA NOA Starts at 0:54 A great exercise in bad faith, and deeply insulting to Mike Sainristil. NCAA doesn't want to go to court because they'll lose, so they produced a blustery document to make it about money. Clearly Stalions should not have been part of any organization. If Jim Harbaugh is still the head coach when this comes out they would have had to fire him. But these are clearly minor violations hopped up as an extension of Harbaugh's reaction to telling them to go to hell for Burgergate, and part of a pattern of the NCAA coming after him personally. We're actually shocked at how bad all of their evidence is: 1) Stalions who's a liar. 2) Joey Velazquez, who recorded Stalions, tried to entrap Partridge, and Partridge proved was lying about their interaction, and for the Level II recruiting violations 3) a player who was broomed from the class whom the NCAA also admitted didn't have his stories straight. The only evidence they had of an atmosphere of noncompliance was an assistant (likely Stalions) saying screw Compliance. When they say the benefit was not marginal they don't even try to justify that take—Michigan got better without Stalions. The report makes its conclusion on the value of this entirely on the basis of the lengths that Stalions went to trying to get film when the guy goes to extreme lengths to pump up his own importance as a rule. Their defining piece of evidence is Harbaugh gave him a game ball, when they also say they found Harbaugh gave out 15 game balls per game to try to make sure everyone on staff got one, and Connor's value was so little that he a defensive ball from Iowa. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Defensive Line Starts at 16:16 Rayshaun Benny was grading out like Mason Graham—see: the end of the OSU and Alabama games. He is not Mason Graham, but should be able to keep up that sort of ratio because they are so deep they can keep him fresh at the end of games. Tre Williams is a Mazi Smith, M valued him more than Clemson did; he isn't a pass-rusher. Damon Payne is an innings-eater. Ike Iwunnah too. Trey Pierce and Enow Etta are the ones we want to see emerge because they have eligibility for next year. Pierce is on that track while Etta gained weight after getting pushed around last year, is ticketed for the Jenkins role. If a 7th DT plays we think it's Palepale, who looks huge and athletic. Edge has a floor of All-Big Ten and a ceiling of Derrick Moore turning into a Day 1 pick. He is that freakish combination of technique, length, and athleticism, got better at dropping into coverage last year, has a Mike Morris style of pass rush that should work. Last year he was getting to the quarterback but everyone else got there before him. TJ Guy is possibly the smartest guy on the field, had the most dip of last year, underrated strength, lots of versatility, though hit a ceiling when it came to carrying Flex TEs. Saved Michigan vs OSU. Cam Brandt is the established backup to D-Mo; we're a little iffy on him, but he might be on the Morris track. Backup to Guy is Nichols—clearly the program likes him but unproven. Would like to see Nate Marshall used in a pass rush only role this year. Would like to see Baxter and Edokpayi playing more this year too. 3. Linebacker Starts at 50:02 Everybody came back/is healthy after they prepared to lose everyone, so there's a lot of age and a lot of depth. Ernest Hausmann is the glue of the offense, another very underrated player who moves like a nickel and reads plays well. Had to get in better shape because when you're the button you can't be breathing hard between plays—you have to yelling. Barham is the Problem for offenses, because you can't block him with a RB and you have to block someone with the RB. Been caught "covering grass" as we say but has the ability to blow up. Can also spend time at edge if need be. Depth is incredible. Rolder is your Braiden McGregor-memorial back-from-injury senior who's going to play plenty and play well but start losing time to Cole Sullivan, the next Barham who's rocked up and earning a ton of practice hype after being under-ranked out of high school by 247 and ESPN (On3 moved him up to #112 so I couldn't make him the Sleeper of the Class). Also got Troy Bowles who's got a role as the Coverage LB. And Jaydon Hood has shown he can play. AND they really like the freshmen: Owusu-Boateng is a future Hausmann while Chase Taylor is a Class Sleeper. 4. Secondary Starts at 1:16:28 Replete with options, but each has a question mark. Is Rod Moore going to play? Maybe 2nd half of the season—was 85% at start of fall, has to backpedal, IG video shows him jogging. Assumed he's a nickel but TJ Metcalf is stepping in for him; Metcalfs (Metcalves?) can obviously play, precognition is Sainristilian. Brandyn Hillman is a hit stick, the person offensive players are most afraid of despite Barham on the team. Free safety is either Jaden Mangham, a glider whom offenses didn't throw at when at MSU (probably because you could throw at anyone else), or Mason Curtis, who is a very weird player. Curtis has an extra role as a Big Nickel, i.e. a hybrid OLB who comes in for Guy against 2TE sets to take away those Flex TEs. Might see something from a young guy but unlikely. Cornerback is the iffiest position on defense but has a super high ceiling with Jyaire and Zeke both with considerable runway. Hill just needs to not bite on double-moves. Berry got comfortable last year, still can clean up his zones and turn getting a hand on passes into interceptions. Depth starts with Jo'Ziah Edmond, a Ryan Walters special stolen from Walters. We think Shamari Earls looks like an immediately viable corner but is on more of a Jyaire development track (also ran track) as opposed to Will Johnson, who was super developed at this stage. Caleb Anderson did not impress us as much as the two #12s who preceded him. Jeremiah Lowe showed some things in spring; Seth thinks Jayden Sanders is going to play more than Lowe. MUSIC: "Turning Heads"—Dem Franchize Boys "I Got You Babe"—Etta James "Needles in the Camel's Eye"—Brian Eno “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

One week before her wedding, on the Easter Morning in 2015 Stephanie Scott decided to stop by her classroom at Leeton High School to go over her lesson plans and other coverage documents she'd left for the substitute teacher one final time. By midafternoon, her fiancéAaron grew anxious by unanswered calls and texts, and reported her missing with Leeton Police. The Leeton community rallied, coordinating search efforts to this beloved member of their town. Sadly, on April 9th, twenty-four-year-old Vincent Stanford was formally charged with the murder of Stephanie Scott. The arrest of Vincent Stanford came as a surprise to Stephanie's friends and family, particularly because, as far as anyone could tell, he was little more than a stranger.Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!ReferencesAustralian Associated Press. 2016. Stephanie Scott's killer Vincent Stanford told police he 'went a little nuts'. October 10. Accessed July 12, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/11/stephanie-scotts-killer-vincent-stanford-told-police-he-went-a-little-nuts.Australian Broadcasting Company. 2015. Stephanie Scott: 24-year-old school cleaner kept in custody over murder of teacher from Leeton, NSW. April 8. Accessed July 12, 2023. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-09/man-charged-leeton-schoolteacher-stephanie-scotts-murder/6379516.—. 2016. Stephanie Scott: Cleaner Vincent Stanford pleads guilty to teacher's rape and. July 19. Accessed July 13, 2023. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-20/stephanie-scott-murder-accused-vincent-stanford-pleadsguilty/.—. 2015. Stephanie Scott: Mother of missing teacher from Leeton fears search is 'running out of days'. April 8. Accessed July 12, 2023. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-08/mother-missing-leeton-teacher-stephanie-scott-fears-search/6378256.—. 2015. Stephanie Scott: Police say burned body found in Cocoparra National Park believed to be that of missing teacher. April 10. Accessed July 12, 2023. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-11/stephanie-scott-police-searchers-find-burned-body-near-griffith/6385584.Brooks, Emily. 2016. This is what we know about Stephanie Scott's killer so far. October 12. Accessed July 13, 2023. https://www.huffpost.com/archive/au/entry/this-is-what-we-know-about-stephanie-scotts-killer-so-far_au_5cd41819e4b0ca9b77563363.Fairfax Media. 2015. "'Devastated:' Communities mourning murdered bride-to-be Stephanie Scott." Central Western Daily, April 9.Harris, Janice. 2015. "Tears for Stephanie: Canowindra grieving for 'absolutely wonderful girl'." Central Western Daily, April 9.Harvey-Jenner, Catriona. 2016. Man's chilling google searches before he murdered a bride-to-be have been revealed in court. October 11. Accessed July 13, 2023. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/news/a46516/murderer-chilling-google-searches-bride-rape-kidnapping/.Levy, Megan. 2015. "'No way it's cold feet!'." Illawarra Mercury, April 8.Partridge, Emma. 2015. "Stephanie Scott's alleged killer not rostered to clean school." Central Western Daily, April 9.Partridge, Emma, and Megan Levy. 2015. "Car found, cleaner charged with murder of Stephanie Scott." Canowindra News, April 9.Patterson, Monique. 2020. United in Grief: The story of Stephanie Scott's Beautiful Life, Tragic Murder, and How Her Death Broke the Heart of Leeton NSW. Milwaukee, WI: Genius Publishing.Pattison, Talia, and Daisy Huntly. 2015. "Have you seen Stephanie Scott." The Irrigator, April 6.Reneker, Tony. 2022. "Stephanie Scott case 'changed' inspector's life." The Irrigator, September 1.Shields, Moyra. 2015. Stephanie Scott: Missing teacher from Leeton in NSW Riverina due to get married on Saturday. April 6. Accessed July 12, 2023. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-07/missing-teacher-from-leeton-nsw-riverina-region-was-due-to-marry/6374992.The Guardian. 2016. Stephanie Scott killer Vincent Stanford sentenced to life for murder. October 12. Accessed July 12, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/13/stephanie-scott-killer-vincent-stanford-sentenced-to-life-for.Stay in the know - wondery.fm/morbid-wondery.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.