Scott "Goudy Old Style" Nickell
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salvius23.bsky.social
Scott "Goudy Old Style" Nickell
@salvius23.bsky.social
210 followers 390 following 760 posts
Tech support, gamer, writer/poet, law school dropout. He/him. Opinions are not those of my employer(s), past, present, or future. They may not even be *mine*.
https://linktr.ee/salvius23
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salvius23.bsky.social
I mean, look at these things. Look at them and tell me they're not inside bones in their hearts.
A child's skull showing where the permanent teeth are before emerging. It is horrifying.
December 10, 2025 at 1:05 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
I revisited Sweet Charity this year because I'm making my way through the Best Picture & Best Foreign Film Oscar-winners, and Sweet Charity was based on a Fellini film, Nights of Cabiria, so I figured I should throw that in. Here's my capsule review from Letterboxd.
Review by Scott Nickell, 3-1/2 stars. Not as good as "Nights of Cabiria" (the Fellini film it was based on). I get the sense that in his first movie, Fosse wasn't yet fully confident in his abilities: Much of it is a fairly conventional Hollywood-Broadway musical comedy. But then the opening bars of "Big Spender" start up, and suddenly we're in a Bob Fosse film. Where his style shines through, it's great, but find clips of "Big Spender" and "Rich Man's Frug" and you'll have seen most of what's worth seeing here (I'm bumping my overall rating up 1/2 star just on the strength of those two numbers).
December 9, 2025 at 10:06 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
You will be visited by three spirits.
A still from the TV series "Babylon 5". Three bald women in vaguely sci-fi upper-class dresses. They are the three wives of Londo Mollari: Daggair, Timov, and Mariel. Londo sometimes also refers to them as Famine, Pestilence, and Death.
December 9, 2025 at 9:09 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
What responsibilities, you dare say? Can you not see the tuxedo? No one who wears a tuxedo like that could be free of responsibilities.
That's what Mikhail tells me, anyway.
Two cats snuggled up together in a cat bed: Mikhail, a tuxedo cat, is big spoon to Twyla, a cream-colored tabby. Mikhail is gazing off into the distance contemplating all the responsibilities he needs to get done. Important work, including running around like a crazed wildebeest, reminding Dad to feed him, and rolling over showing his belly like a goofball.
December 9, 2025 at 3:50 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
Time to start flying these flags again.
The flag of the Conch Republic, a micronation created when Key West, Florida briefly seceded from the US in 1982 to protest the actions of US Customs & Border Patrol. The flag is primarily blue, with a stylized sun containing a conch shell in the center, and stars depicting the Northern and Southern Cross constellations on either side. At the top, the words "Conch Republic", 1828 (the year Key West was incorporated), and below are the words "Key West". This particular flag also includes an unofficial addition to the design: The motto "We Seceded Where Others Failed".
December 3, 2025 at 6:09 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
no elves... Tired of "look-alike" fantasy games? Then journey to TALISLANTA - a fantastic campaign world populated by Wizard Hunters, Astromancers, Black Savants Exomorphs, Wind Demons, and best of all no elves... For a free catalogue send S.A.S.E. to Bard Games P.O. Box 7724 Greenwich, CT 06836 [Note: This is an ad from 1987, so I very much doubt this address is still valid] The Chronicles of Talislanta World Book: $12.00 The Talislantan Handbook Campaign Book: $9.95 A Naturalist's Guide to Talislanta: $12.00 The Talislanta Sorcerer's Guide Magic Supplement: $12.00 Available at Waldenbooks, B. Dalton, and finer hobby stores.
November 27, 2025 at 5:22 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
I'm not sure I like where this might lead, though.
The cover art for "The Cyberpapacy: The Sourcebook of Cyber-Religious Reality," a sourcebook for the Torg TTRPG. Torg depicts a world under invasion by competing alternate realities, one of which is the Cyberpapacy, a kind of cyberpunk theocracy taking over France. Honestly, it was one of the more creative and interesting takes on the cyberpunk genre in 1990s RPGs. The artwork is a composite image of the Cyberpope, complete with integrated-circuit-encrusted mitre and pallium, a couple of imposingly-helmeted guards, and another cybered-up person surrounded by some gargoyles.
November 21, 2025 at 11:48 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
We just need to impeach & remove *enough* people. :-)
The current line of succession after POTUS, copied from Wikipedia. There are 18 people in the list, from VP Vance down to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. To be less facetious than my original post, I think in reality you'd pretty much have to impeach & remove all of these people simultaneously, because otherwise replacements would be appointed, who would then be eligible to step in. Even then, it almost certainly wouldn't actually result in a full general election.
November 21, 2025 at 7:14 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
She was a little ball of grump and I loved her. I'm pretty sure she also deliberately posed for the camera. For example:
A small grey rabbit hiding among a pile of plush toy animals like E.T. A grey rabbit standing on two legs like a prairie dog. She did this when she saw that I was pointing a camera at her.
November 18, 2025 at 9:35 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
This is right out of Umberto Eco's "Ur-Fascism" essay.
The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. When I was a boy I was taught to think of Englishmen as the five-meal people. They ate more frequently than the poor but sober Italians. Jews are rich and help each other through a secret web of mutual assistance. However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.
November 14, 2025 at 12:02 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
Pepe does have four arms, yes.

(Technically prawns are decapods, so he might have more that we never see, or the rest might all be legs).
Muppet character Pepe the King Prawn giving thumbs-up with all four of his hands.
November 6, 2025 at 3:02 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
Fox Dei Guy
Fox God or Huxian Drawn by Artist She Xi
November 5, 2025 at 5:36 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
For the record: Hanging on my dining room wall is a piece I commissioned from the same artist featuring Statler as Hidetora in Ran.
Statler, the Muppet character, as Lord Hidetora Ichimonji in Akira Kurosawa's film "Ran". He sits in despair, flaming arrows setting alight the room behind him. The Mighty Favog (a living statue from early SNL Muppet sketches) takes the place of what was a suit of samurai armor on display in the original film.
November 3, 2025 at 10:19 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
Aldo Valletti as The President in Pasolini's film "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom" (1975), sticking his fingers in the sides of his mouth to make a funny face. A brown substance is smeared on his lips. In the film, this is part of a feast scene in which everyone eats from plates of human feces. He is saying to one of the victims: "Carlo, do this with your fingers and say, 'I can't eat rice with my fingers like this.'" "I can't eat rice." "Then eat shit."
November 1, 2025 at 8:26 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
I couldn't decide which would be the better joke reply to this, so just pick one.
Reserved parking: Compact vehicle Oversized vehicle parking only
October 31, 2025 at 4:59 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
My personal favorite (probably because I've had pet rabbits in my home for about 25 years now).
The cover of the Criterion Collection blu-ray of the animated film by Martin Rosen, Watership Down (1978). In a scene from the film, it depicts a silhouetted rabbit in a field, struggling for his life against the snare he has been caught in.
October 19, 2025 at 5:22 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
A panel from "Strange Planet" by Nathan W. Pyle. A cartoon alien being holds his hands to his face, surrounded by stars, with an expression of happiness and wonder. The caption reads: "Existence is finite; Joy needs no defense."
October 11, 2025 at 1:34 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
Cat in a suit sitting at a table reading a newspaper. A caption reads "I should buy a pool table."
September 28, 2025 at 6:17 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
Also this one, which came out a few years later, but I always like to use it as an example of how my parents, as a matter of principle, never shielded me from anything. I was eight. And I loved the movie. I even had one of the toys.
Alien In space no one can hear you scream
September 28, 2025 at 6:05 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
Age yourself with a movie you saw in a theater as a kid.
Caught in a world where they don't belong... they have one chance to escape! Walt Disney Productions presents Escape to Witch Mountain Starring Eddie Albert, Ray Milland, Donald Pleasence
September 28, 2025 at 6:02 PM
salvius23.bsky.social
I have weird movie-watching tendencies.
My "Recent Activity" list from letterboxd.com. It shows that I have watched, over the last few days: Barry Lyndon (4 stars), Godzilla (4 stars), Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (3 1/2 stars), and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (4 stars).
August 25, 2025 at 1:16 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
Some of the real footage was leaked, though.
A promo poster for Doris Wishman's 1961 film, "Nude on the Moon". It features several (presumably nude) women silhouetted against a yellow drawing of the moon, with the text: "Man Discovers A NATURE CAMP On The MOON!" "A truly different adventure to take you OUT OF THIS WORLD!" "Nude on the Moon, In Beautiful Eastman Color" "ADULTS ONLY, Released Thru JER PICTURES, INC."
July 30, 2025 at 7:50 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
A man in a pinstripe suit, one of the libertine fascists from Pasolini's "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom", shouting "Mangia!" In the context of the film, he is forcing one of their young victims to eat poop.
July 28, 2025 at 7:16 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
Name stories: Twyla (the cream tabby below) was named that by the shelter we got her from, and unusually it felt like the right name, and we kept it. She originally joined Princess Peanut Buttercup (a tortie, so named because we kept asking for suggestions and everyone had different ideas).
Twyla, a cream tabby cat, and Mikhail, a tuxedo cat, snuggled up together in a plush cat bed.
July 28, 2025 at 1:20 AM
salvius23.bsky.social
1970, man.
A screenshot of "Recent Activity" on Letterboxd, showing that the user has recently viewed MASH, Catch-22, Woodstock, and Patton.
July 28, 2025 at 12:33 AM