sigynpenniman:

sigynpenniman:

sigynpenniman:

My absolute favorite Alexander Siddig story - and oh boy I have a lot of favorites - is that one day he noticed everyone on the DS9 set was suddenly asking him these weird very carefully phrased gentle questions like hey buddy, how you doing? you feeling alright? Can we get you anything? you know you can always come to us for help if you need it and he was like wtf why is everyone being weird and it turned out that he had been showing up to set late and generally looking tired and the whole crew thought he had gotten into hard drugs but in reality what he was doing was staying up till 4 AM every night playing Ultima Online

@keanu-reeves IM GLAD YOU ASKED

when he gets goin he basically tells stories constantly but it is somewhat sobering because a solid percentage of them are just about casual racism he has experienced and often seems amazingly unbothered by

anyway let’s see

- a fan approached him at a con and very very nervously thrust a magazine into his hands…with a photo of James Callis. He tried to explain to them repeatedly that he was not James Callis but they were so nervous they were basically not responsive so he finally signed the photo “Alexander Siddig is not James Callis” and gave it back and they thanked him and walked away

- He was sent to the UK from Sudan on a plane alone (running from political unrest in the country) when he was maybe 3 years old and the only thing his family sent with him was a suitcase full of mangoes because he loved them and they were hard to get in the UK (this would have been the late 60s)

- He desperately wanted to be an elf in Lord Of The Rings and they offered him a different part (I forget which one) and he was like ???? okay but I would like to be an elf and they told him flatly that they only wanted white people for the elves and he very rightly turned down all involvement in the production in response

- Not only did he spend all of the 90s playing video games he very much still plays them and now and, hilariously, is always the group healer which is something to unpack if you wanted to

- He took his kid to Disneyland and the person in the Mickey Mouse costume broke protocol to say “OH MY GOD IT’S DR BASHIR”

- The first review he ever got for being in a play spelled his name horribly wrong

- there are so so many more but after a year of hearing them it’s all a soup in my head PEOPLE WHO’VE BEEN LISTENING TO HIM ON ZOOM AND REMEMBER PLEASE ADD YOUR FAVORITES

Also since this post is doing numbers now I want to make sure everyone knows because I think almost everyone following me already is part of this but this is getting outside my standard circle: Alexander Siddig is an Angel. The reason I know all this stuff is that he has spent the last year+ essentially donating what is now hundreds of hours of his time talking to his fans on Zoom. He listens to everyone’s stories, comforts people, reassures people, offers advice (of varying quality, but we love him anyway), listens intently to every single infodump, answers pretty much any question asked of him, has gotten very into trans and nuerodivergent rights, remembers people, checks up on people, and is generally so incredibly gentle and sweet and kind to absolutely everyone and as of right now is still doing this when he has time despite no longer being in quarantine and currently filming on the other side of the world. If you are new to this fandom or otherwise don’t know a lot about Sid or his zoom outreach I am delighted to let you know that every bit of kindness and gentleness and generally nice vibes you get off of Julian is just Sid being Sid and he is every bit that and better in real life

tinkles:

This toad came right over to me and blessed me with a chirp and a song. ✨🤎

vaspider:

gallusrostromegalus:

So y’all keep blowing up my notes with the various Family Lore stories I’ve been telling, so I guess I should tell one on my parents now.

My Mother’s Father was part of the United Auto Worker’s Union, and during the 50′s and 60′s, was on strike a lot. My point is, grandpa got himself an entirely deserved reputation for being a sucker who loved animals, so people would dump thier pets on him. Hence, my mother grew up in a house with pets such as Picket the one-eyed tomcat, Tweety the Bald canary, Dummy the cat, Stupid Son of Dummy, Spooky Garbage Dog and Chiquita the Tarantula.  Eventually Grandma put her foot down when Grandpa brought home Gerta the Saint Bernard.

I say all this because it provides some context for how the following occured.

Mom and Dad had just moved in together (my parents dated for six years and were engaged for 13 days, driving everyone on both sides insane), and unfortunately, My mother’s German Shepherd, Cops, has just passed away due to bone cancer.  After mourning for a bit, Mom and Dad decided to get a dog together, as a couple.  

For context, my father had never owned a dog in his life.  His mother had ‘Pretty Bird” the budgie as a child but parrots are alien life forms, not pets.

So they go to the Palo Alto Animal shelter to adopt.  The year was 1987, and at the time, Palo Alto was… not a great place.  Lots of drugs, gangs and poor civic managment.  Mom told me that she learned to identify different types of gunfire while living there. They get there, and mom explains that she’s always had a preference for Big Dogs, and the guy’s face lights up.  Oh Yes, he says, We have a Big Dog.  For expirienced owners, yep, adoptable today, here we’ll give you a discount even-

Somehow my parents were not suspicious about this.

They were shown to the Animal in question, a Gorgeous blue-sable beastie with pretty golden eyes who immediately pressed herself against the fence and gave them the best PUH-LEEEEEEASE TAKE ME HOME puppy eyes 100lbs of canine can do.  Mom and Dad fall in love instantly.  They sign all the paperwork and take her home for $10, and name her “Mazel” as in “Mazel Tov.”

Within the hour, it becomes clear that something is amiss.

Cops had lived with his kibble stored in a plastic garbage can in the garage for six years without incident.  Mazel figured out how to open doors and got the locking lid off the can in six minutes, horking down about four pounds of the stuff before my mother notices that it’s been weirdly quiet.  Most dogs bark at or chase squirrels.  Mazel stalked and caught one the second day, presenting it to my mother like an offering.  Mazel knew all her commands but would clearly stop to consider before obeying, and trained my dad to give her good treats within a week.  The locks on the side-yard gate were undone, and she took a stroll around the neighborhood, but always retuned home for dinner.

After a week of gradually realizing that Mazel was smarter than most of the professors my mom worked with, they took her to the Vet for a routine checkup.

Dr. Hamada walked into the exam room, dropped the clip-board and said “Where the HELL did you get a Wolf?”

After a bit of prodding and a very-angry-dr.hamada-calling-the-pound, they determined Mazel was a high-content hybrid, probably with a husky, but was going to be a lil shit her entire life.  OK, said Hamada, I don’t like destroying animals and you’ve got a lot of expirience with dogs, so I’m okay with letting you keep her, but you should keep her away from small children because her Prey Drive could kick in.

Two years later, mom got pregnant with me.

Mazel noticed instantly, and reacted by digging a large hole in the yard and catching even more squirrels for mom, because she needed the protein or something.  That what you do when the Alpha Bitch is preggers, right?  Dig a den and ply her with food?  On the advice of my grandmother, my mom stayed overnight at the hospital once I was delivered, and dad went home with a shirt that had moms and my scent on it.  Mazel spent the whole night puzzling over it.

The next morning, when mom came home with me, there was the sudden and instantaneous recognition of PUPPY!!!!!! :D:D:D!!!!! PUUUUUUUPPY!!!!!!  and Mazel turned into the most aggressively maternal being I’ve ever met.  Playing with me on the blanket, sitting under my chair at meals (I was a messy eater), sleeping under my crib, teaching me to walk by letting me hang onto her fur and shuffle around.

Dr. Hamada thought mom was a madwoman, until he saw me holding Mazel’s mouth open and sticking my face in so i could look at her teeth.  He gave up when my mom announced she was pregnant with my sister.

I’m making living with a Wolfdog sound awesome, but it did come with some drawbacks:

• Mazel did have to be muzzled at the vets, because she had Opinions about having things stuck up her butt.
  
• HAIR.  One of my chores growing up was to brush her out every week and I’d frequently end up with more hair than animal.
• the only way we could reliably get her to stay in the yard was with an overhead tether with a STEEL cable, which she chewed through anyway.
• Do you like waking up by being hit in the face with half a dead animal? No? Wolfdogs may not be for you.
• More than capable of opening the fridge and eating everything if you’re not watching
• Will get into everything if not otherwise occupied.  Including eating your tax forms.
• Howls along with sirens at 4 AM.

PROS of growing up with a wolfdog, as a small child in the 90′s

• I was afforded a degree of freedom normally associated with a pokemon trianer. It was no big deal for me and my sister to walk three miles through my not-really-good neighborhood to the Froyo if I took Mazel with us. People tended to leave us alone when we had 100lbs of overprotective Apex Predator following us around.
  
• WINNING at Pet Day at school.  There wasn’t actually a compettion but Billy’s hamster sucks in comparison to an animal that is perfectly willing to demonstrate how she can snap an oak branch in half on command.
• PTA moms losing their shit because Mazel would walk down the block by herself to come pick ups up from school.
• Grew up associating the word “Bitch” with teeth and the willingness to rip an asshole’s face off for being rude.  Never changed the definition.
• Learned the I-Own-This Strut and Murder-Stare from the absolute best.

When she was 17, Mom and Dad decided to add another room on to the house.  They rigged up the overhead tether so she could be outside but not underfoot for the contruction guys.  One morning, mom came out to notice them all milling in the side yard entrance, muttering worriedly.  When mom asked what was wrong, one of them explained that Carlos forgot to bring the Hamburger.  What do you need a hamburger for?  Asked mom, and they pointed down the side yard to where Mazel was sitting, doing her best Viscious Alpha Bitch Stare.

Apparently they’d never realized that she was on the VERY end of her tether there and couldn’t actually get to them, and had been scamming them for a big mac a day for a month.  Mom had my six-year-old sister pull her away to show she wasn’t dangerous and tired her best not to laugh but kind of failed.

Mazel ended up living to be 19 and a half, and except for some minor arthritis, remarkably hale until the day she passed away in her hole in the back yard while taking a nap.  I maintain that Death had to wait until she was sleeping to get a crack at her, or she would’ve taken his scythe for a chew toy.

tbh this sounds like one of @seananmcguire‘s stories and I do not doubt it a bit bc I know all of Seanan’s stories are true. XD