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Thank you so much for visiting me at kickassbaker! I'm Kim. I'm a working mom and home baker who's constantly in search of a life in balance. Sharing easy and approachable baking recipes and tips for busy families like my own. Thanks for joining me on my journey called everyday life!
I broke a reading slump by reading something different from my normal fare: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson, which is a nonfiction book about the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.
A K ABI chose to write about these two women because they express different types of kickass-ness, and because I love the fact that this friendship between women was literally lifesaving. Theodate was rich and privileged and kickass as a feminist trailblazer in the public sphere. Belle Naish was a privileged but otherwise ordinary person who behaved extraordinarily during and after a harrowing situation and followed the sinking with a quiet life of philanthropy and service.
The Lusitania was a British ship that had already crossed the Atlantic safely 201 times when she was sunk by a German U-boat while en route from New York City to Liverpool. She was sunk off the Irish coast in 1915, directly causing 1,198 deaths. While often paired in the public mind with the Titanic sinking, there were some key differences:
Theodate designed Hill-Stead, a stately home in Connecticut, as a home for her parents and their extensive art collection. Hill-Stead was intended to become a full-time museum, and it remains in operation today. She also became interested in Spiritualism, as were many progressive intellectuals of the time. Theodate was an intellectual leader, socializing with author Edith Wharton, artist Mary Cassatt, author Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, and many other intellectuals and artists of the day. Her dream was to design a school for boys that would implement progressive ideas about education in a beautiful setting.
Theodate suffered from depression all her life and found that she could sometimes relieve especially acute bouts of it by traveling. At the age of 48, she set sail on the Lusitania accompanied by her maid, Emily Robinson, and her friend, Edwin W. Friend, a fellow spiritualist whose pregnant wife had chosen to stay home. They hoped to win English support for a new American spiritualist society.
When the Lusitania sank, Theodate, Edwin, and Emily jumped into the water together but were immediately separated. Theodate lost consciousness but was wearing a life belt. She was pulled onto a rescue boat and taken for dead until a woman she had befriended on the journey, Belle Naish, saw her and thought she saw a sign of life. She begged sailors to try to revive her and after two hours of effort Theodate regained consciousness. Edwin and Emily did not survive.
They befriended Theodate, Edwin, and Emily on the ship. Theodore Naish had been born in Britain, and the couple were taking a belated honeymoon. Like most people on the Lusitania, including Theodate Pope, they were worried about German submarines, but were reassured by the fact that the ship was said to be faster than a U-boat and they assumed, along with most passengers, that the British would send a convoy to protect the ship when it got close to Britain.
Belle was picked up by the ship Julia, a trawler which was picking up as many bodies, living and dead, as it could and ferrying them to shore. The crew saw Theodate floating, unconscious, and believed she was dead. They pulled her onto the deck with a boat hook and left her there with the other bodies while they continued searching for others. While looking for her husband, Belle found Theodate and refused to believe that she was dead. She insisted that the sailors cut off her wet clothes, wrap her in a blanket, and massage her vigorously for two hours before she regained partial consciousness. It took another two hours in front of a fire for her to fully regain consciousness.
The next weeks were chaotic as the small town where the survivors were taken struggled to care for the survivors and tend to the dead. Seven-year old Robert Kay was separated from his mother in the water (she did not survive). He had the measles, and Belle took him under her wing for many days until he could be reunited with a grandparent. She also wrote to families who were asking for news, trying to help connect them with their loved ones.
The small town in Ireland where the Lusitania passengers, both dead and alive, were taken is called Cobh (pr. Cove). It is a port town in Co. Cork, and was known as Queenstown at the time of the Lusitania sinking. It was also the last port of call for the Titanic on her final trip across the Atlantic. There are monuments to both ships in Cobh. The building where the Lusitania victims were laid out for identification is now the public library. Despite all the tragedy associated with Cobh, it is my favorite place in Ireland.
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I'm perfectly fine admitting that I never thought that I would be writing this post. I was never a huge fan of the Evil Dead films and as a person who has seen many of her favorite intellectual properties canceled or rebooted with less than stellar results, the absolutely perfect Ash Vs Evil Dead series kinda annoyed me. The tone is spot on, the horror elements are both unique and hilarious, and Ash is the same kind of person he's always been. This series is proof that reboots can be done, and done well... And almost as if to add insult to injury, Ash Vs Evil Dead accomplishes the very thing that the previous films lacked - interesting and capable female characters.What? An article arguing that Ash Vs Evil Dead is feminist and contains not one but two notably kickass female characters? Indeed. So here we go.
For those of you not as familiar with the show, when we first meet Ruby Knowby (played by the suspiciously ageless Lucy Lawless) she claims to the be the daughter of Raymond Knowby - the professor in the Evil Dead films who discovers the Necromonicon and Kandarian dagger. I don't think I would be spoiling too much to say that Ruby's history is much more, um historical? complicated? spooky? than that.
What makes Ruby a great character is that she's smart. Smart enough to connect herself to Ash's past and insert herself into this life. She's also smart enough to adjust her plans to the circumstances around her. You almost feel shocked when an idiot like Ash gets the better of her, but I think that's the point. It's engaging because Ruby is formidable and interesting in her own way. She gets annoyed at Ash but always manages to keep her goal in sight. A well-written villain (and acted - Lucy Lawless is GREAT!) is one that you're excited to see, love to hate, but also find appealing on some level...even when you know you shouldn't. Ruby is one of those villains. Oh, and she's a woman. Well done, TV show.
The other awesome female character in this show is Ash Williams' friend/teammate Kelly Maxwell. In many ways, Kelly starts off as a basic "strong female character." She puts Ash in his place when he tries to flirt with her and is basically angry all the time and bitterly sarcastic. In a lot of shows, this would have ticked off all the boxes for their required strong female elements, but over the seasons of the show, Kelly has proven to be more than that. Her attitude is linked to her life and past rather than just it just being a personality trait. Better yet, she even becomes more comfortable showing other parts of her personality including extreme loyalty to her friends and loved ones.
Kelly becomes even more interesting as a character when you compare her with her counterpart on Ash's team, Pablo Simon Bolivar. Rather than just having Kelly fill in what may be considered the more feminine role on the team, most of that role sits comfortably with Pablo. Kelly is the one who takes to fighting more naturally and it's Kelly who formulates a lot of strategy and planning. Additionally, when it comes for the group to take a break, Kelly is the one who grows restless with no demons to battle while Pablo is perfectly content to stay in town with Ash to both support him and set up a food cart. Pablo is the one serving as the emotional heart and team cheerleader. Best of all, it isn't a bad thing and he still is a force to be reckoned with on his own.
I personally find it very exciting to find awesome ladies in surprising places. Ash Vs Evil Dead proves that you can not only reboot an older male-focused property but also update the story to include more women characters who serve as much more than plot devices. There are rumors that the third season of this show could very well be the last, so if you're a fan of kickass ladies and inventive horror action sequences, you should be getting your hands on this in hopes that the series might continue a bit longer. You might be surprised by how much you enjoy it. I certainly was.
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