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Here's a permissions thingy:
Blanket permission to podfic as desired. I would be incredibly flattered. Just link back.
Conditional permission to remix fic: Please no remixes into non-canonical kidfic or mpreg.
I was not pursuing watching Heated Rivalry. Truly, I wasn't. I read the HR book (but none of the other books in the series). It was nice. (Not typically what I look for in fanfic, but it's OK; sometimes it's downright lovely.) I found the novel to read like "angst with a happy ending," the end.
I did not find it earth shattering, but that might be because I did not actually read it; I listened to the audio book. So I suspect I missed a lot that I would've otherwise gotten if I read the book, because my eyes work better with my brain than my ears do (except when it comes to music enjoyment).
Just ask every parent - and teacher - even friends - who ever tried to give me verbal step by step instructions for doing anything. I was not good at that. Reading from A WRITTEN LIST of instructions, no prob. Listening and organizing verbal instructions? Yeah, I suck at that. (And then in my 4th decade, I was finally diagnosed with ADHD. Coincidence? I think not.)
Yeah, I heard all the buzz about the series. But I am one of those "if it's 'trending', I'm the opposite of interested" cranks. I generally hate being told what to look at/watch/listen to/do by anyone/anything who isn't paying my hourly wage - especially any algorithms.
(To be fair, I don't much like being told what to do by those who pay me to do my job, either - especially when it's stupid, bad for patients, and/or violates the manager's/employer's/facility's existing policies. But then, they are paying me, so I tend to listen, even if it's stupid, because I have bills to pay until I die. Anything 'trending' anything is not paying me to pay attention to it. So. I tend to ignore "trending." *shrug*)
But as I was, uh, let's say "obtaining" Heated Rivalry for a friend over last weekend, I thought: well, since I have all six episodes of S1 now, I might as well watch it... So I did. Here's my review. No spoilers.
First, though, I'm going to say - very earnestly - something not said much in fandom anymore (not nearly as often as it was, say, 5-10 years ago):
omg - the feels!
Seriously. There are some very heart-clenching, angsty moments in certain HR episodes that broke me in the best possible way. Angst is my jam, so - guh. I could hardly take it, the angst was so achingly good.
( Other thoughts in no particular order, with no spoilers )
I really liked Heated Rivalry. A lot. They really did a great job with this series. I'm proud to have been enjoying similarly Canadian made little TV series gems for decades (Forever Knight... due South...) - and I'm so glad to see another one, this time apparently taking the world by storm.
Also, kudos to Jacob Tierney (Glen on Letterkenny) for helming such an incredible project.
I did not find it earth shattering, but that might be because I did not actually read it; I listened to the audio book. So I suspect I missed a lot that I would've otherwise gotten if I read the book, because my eyes work better with my brain than my ears do (except when it comes to music enjoyment).
Just ask every parent - and teacher - even friends - who ever tried to give me verbal step by step instructions for doing anything. I was not good at that. Reading from A WRITTEN LIST of instructions, no prob. Listening and organizing verbal instructions? Yeah, I suck at that. (And then in my 4th decade, I was finally diagnosed with ADHD. Coincidence? I think not.)
Yeah, I heard all the buzz about the series. But I am one of those "if it's 'trending', I'm the opposite of interested" cranks. I generally hate being told what to look at/watch/listen to/do by anyone/anything who isn't paying my hourly wage - especially any algorithms.
(To be fair, I don't much like being told what to do by those who pay me to do my job, either - especially when it's stupid, bad for patients, and/or violates the manager's/employer's/facility's existing policies. But then, they are paying me, so I tend to listen, even if it's stupid, because I have bills to pay until I die. Anything 'trending' anything is not paying me to pay attention to it. So. I tend to ignore "trending." *shrug*)
But as I was, uh, let's say "obtaining" Heated Rivalry for a friend over last weekend, I thought: well, since I have all six episodes of S1 now, I might as well watch it... So I did. Here's my review. No spoilers.
First, though, I'm going to say - very earnestly - something not said much in fandom anymore (not nearly as often as it was, say, 5-10 years ago):
omg - the feels!
Seriously. There are some very heart-clenching, angsty moments in certain HR episodes that broke me in the best possible way. Angst is my jam, so - guh. I could hardly take it, the angst was so achingly good.
( Other thoughts in no particular order, with no spoilers )
I really liked Heated Rivalry. A lot. They really did a great job with this series. I'm proud to have been enjoying similarly Canadian made little TV series gems for decades (Forever Knight... due South...) - and I'm so glad to see another one, this time apparently taking the world by storm.
Also, kudos to Jacob Tierney (Glen on Letterkenny) for helming such an incredible project.
The Stratford Festival posted a trailer of Waiting for Godot (with Paul Gross) on their Facebook (which is public, so you don't have to have a FB account). There is no dialog in the preview; it's extremely short, so it's perfect for IG, tiktok, other social media. If you like that sort of thing.
Waiting for Godot will run from May 30 to July 31, 2026. David Keeley (PG's old band mate) will also be in the production, but is not in the trailer. There's more info on the Stratford web site.
Waiting for Godot will run from May 30 to July 31, 2026. David Keeley (PG's old band mate) will also be in the production, but is not in the trailer. There's more info on the Stratford web site.
new dS Word Search (Fannish Fifty #6)
Jan. 15th, 2026 03:42 pmOver in the private Fraser/Kowalski Facebook group, Regina Keim posted a new due South word search with the tagline "New Year, New Word Search."
You can access it here, even if you can't see the group's posts because you're not a member.
You can access it here, even if you can't see the group's posts because you're not a member.
For once, AI did a decent job: On the Facebook group Trip Hop Lovers, one OP posted this AI summary of the musical genre Trip Hop.
I've loooved trip hop since the 90s, when I first discovered it via very early Internet "radio stations" (which we would now call streaming music channels, but the term "streaming" had not yet been coined, or at least was not yet in common use). Other than rock n roll (and some classical and opera), trip hop is probably my favorite musical genre though I can't say the same for either rap or hip hop, as, for various reasons (like misogyny, glorification of violence, etc) neither is my jam (despite the Grandmaster Flash 12"s and Run DMC records I bought when they first came out, way, way back in the day).
( details and some suggested trip hop )
I highly recommend checking out the post and the trip hop artists I mentioned above. If you're not sure if you'd like it, you can dip your toe into trip hop - or "trip hop lite", anyway - by searching YouTube for "chill hop"/"chillhop" and listen to any of the compilations that come up. On YouTube, Lofi Girl, out of France, has multiple live-streaming channels that are also good trip-hop-esque.
But for the real deal, imo, nothing beats the full instrumental version of Morcheeba's album Charango. Pure trip hop bliss, is what that is.
( some video and audio streaming cheapskate tips and parting remarks )
Regina Keim posted to the private Fraser/Kowalski Facebook group about the old RideForever due South Fic Archive (which was originally on the now long-dead geocities domain) being saved/archived at oocities.org.
You can only search by Author, as far as I can tell. But of the few fics I've briefly checked, some authors include character/pairing/rating etc. information at the top of the fic.
A few issues:
- oocities.org seems to be very, very slow in responding.
- I got a security warning due to browser certificate mismatch.
- depending on your system or browser colors, when you click on a fic, it may look like a totally blank page.
( work-arounds for these issues )
Besides site certificate mismatch, the missing text I suspect is because of html page code circa early 2000s that does not play nice with modern browsers - understandable for an archive that may last have been updated seventeen years ago.Also, for some authors, clicking on their name seems to go to their own individual web page. There may be broken links, as a result.
1) Deb Salisbury posted photos of Paul Gross that she took in 1997, while in the studio audience of Dini Petty's talk show, to the Due South! Facebook group.
ETA: Apparently the photos are private to the FB group, so I screenshot and uploaded them here with screenshot of the original post. The quality you see is the original quality as posted - as she explains, flash photos weren't allowed, so the only lighting was studio lighting. That said, they're pretty good for being no flash.
He's so young, handsome, and clean cut in them. Yowza. 💜
B. Paul Gross-Addict posted a 1994 CBS bumper featuring Fraser and Vecchio wishing viewers Happy Holidays and New Year's on the due South By South East FB group; the vid clip, which is in SD VHS quality, came from YouTube.
Enjoy!
I originally saw this reblogged on Tumblr and just had to share.
I do not have the energy generally, or even at a mitochondrial level, to chase my fanfic dreams... But recently I finally posted a few decades-old WIPs (held back by my "perfect is the enemy of good enough" tendencies, sigh), proving that it is absolutely true: apparently, for some (many!) WIP fics, years/decades was my sustainable pace to finally complete them. And I'm okay with that. 🙂 Better late than never!
Paul Gross will have a cameo in the upcoming Season 2 of the CBC series Saint-Pierre (starring Allan Hawco, of Republic of Doyle). See this article. Only one line in the entire article mentions PG's cameo. On a PC or laptop, use Ctrl-F and type "Gross" to find it. Mobile, use "Find in page" in your browser.
Besides his role in the George Clooney-produced Broadway version of Good Night, and Good Luck back in June, 2025, (currently only available for rent or purchase via Amazon Prime Video, Plex, and Apple TV), PG will also be in the independent film The Fallers (about which there is little other information). He's also been in rehearsals for Waiting For Godot in the upcoming 2026 Stratford season.
Joanne Currie and Regina Keim posted a new due South Convivial Pursuit quiz to the private Facebook Due South Duet: Fraser/Kowalski Slash group. The new Convivial Pursuit quiz is based on the Christmas episodes Gift of the Wheelman and Good For The Soul. (Episode links courtesy of Anna's due South episode transcripts site, https://nicede.se/dstranscripts/.)
Regina Keim sent the Facebook Due South Trading Post group a link to this fabulous "Super Mountie" art on the German Etsy site.
I thought people might like to see it. Not sure if it's available outside Europe, though.
ETA: Link fixed!
PG as Santa fanart (Fannish Fifty #60)
Dec. 23rd, 2025 10:26 amFB user Lon Val posted these pics of PG as Santa on the Due South by South East Facebook group.
ETA: Tumblr folks identified Lon Val as the original artist, TYK!
ETA: Tumblr folks identified Lon Val as the original artist, TYK!
UPDATE: I had a little break, so I did upload all Regina's XXXs and OOOs screenshots of PG to my public Dropbox, so anyone/everyone can see them. Credit to Regina Keim, of course - but this beauty simply must be shared! If/when she makes her album public, I'll remove mine.)
The Stratford festival posted pics of Waiting For Godot (Stratford) rehearsals with Paul Gross (and David Keeley) on their public Facebook page. Anyone can view these; you don't have to have a FB account - it's public.
Regina Keim also posted a photo album of screen shots of an adorably young and clean cut-looking PG from 1994's XXXs and OOOx movie.
( currently restricted only to members of the FB Fraser-Kowalski Slash group but I've asked if she'll make it public, details here )
The Stratford festival posted pics of Waiting For Godot (Stratford) rehearsals with Paul Gross (and David Keeley) on their public Facebook page. Anyone can view these; you don't have to have a FB account - it's public.
Regina Keim also posted a photo album of screen shots of an adorably young and clean cut-looking PG from 1994's XXXs and OOOx movie.
( currently restricted only to members of the FB Fraser-Kowalski Slash group but I've asked if she'll make it public, details here )
The ongoing American race to the bottom
Dec. 3rd, 2025 10:29 pmSaw this on the local PBS news tonight:
The Trump administration plans to move graduate-level nursing degrees out of their professional classification, changing how much money students in those programs can borrow.
Under the changes, graduate nursing students would be limited to $20,500 in federal loans each year...
$20,500/year is NOTHING for pursuing NP, CRNA, CNM degrees. This is not merely pure IDIOCY. It's INSANITY.
wtf is WRONG with these idiots? With an aging Boomer and Gen X populace, and with the existing doctor shortages - without NPs (Nurse Practitioners), CNMs (Certified Nurse Midwives), and CRNAs (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists), how will people be seen in Urgent Care? In clinics? Deliver babies? Get anesthesia and nerve blocks for surgeries?
The last three times I had to go to Urgent Care, I was seen by NPs, not MDs... Doctors paying back hundreds of thousands of $ in medical school loans DON'T GO into low paying specialties like family practice, general medical clinics, etc - because those don't pay well enough to pay back their school loans! Graduate level nurses fill those gaps!
So are we great again yet?? HA!
We get farther and farther from greatness in this unrelenting RACE TO THE BOTTOM led by Trump and ALL of his administration - they're a bunch of short sighted idiots making all of us less healthy and safe.
I'm so enraged I COULD SPIT. I only wish that I could direct my spit onto Trump and his administration!
The Trump administration plans to move graduate-level nursing degrees out of their professional classification, changing how much money students in those programs can borrow.
Under the changes, graduate nursing students would be limited to $20,500 in federal loans each year...
$20,500/year is NOTHING for pursuing NP, CRNA, CNM degrees. This is not merely pure IDIOCY. It's INSANITY.
wtf is WRONG with these idiots? With an aging Boomer and Gen X populace, and with the existing doctor shortages - without NPs (Nurse Practitioners), CNMs (Certified Nurse Midwives), and CRNAs (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists), how will people be seen in Urgent Care? In clinics? Deliver babies? Get anesthesia and nerve blocks for surgeries?
The last three times I had to go to Urgent Care, I was seen by NPs, not MDs... Doctors paying back hundreds of thousands of $ in medical school loans DON'T GO into low paying specialties like family practice, general medical clinics, etc - because those don't pay well enough to pay back their school loans! Graduate level nurses fill those gaps!
So are we great again yet?? HA!
We get farther and farther from greatness in this unrelenting RACE TO THE BOTTOM led by Trump and ALL of his administration - they're a bunch of short sighted idiots making all of us less healthy and safe.
I'm so enraged I COULD SPIT. I only wish that I could direct my spit onto Trump and his administration!
So I was doing some dS research and though I haven't seen it recently, the question of "how many seasons of due South were there?" often comes up (or its variation, "were there 3 or 4 seasons of due South" - to which the answer is, "Yes" because both are true, depending which country you're talking about).
Explaining requires the Wayback Machine, but here you go for the definitive answer: it was 3 in the US and 4 in Canada (and other countries), as evidenced by this old page from William and Elyse's due South Page.
Specifically, this section here answers that question: 3 in the US, and 4 elsewhere (like the UK and Australia, in addition to Canada).
That is why the dS episode transcripts that were cribbed from the (very) old (and long defunct) Victoria's (Not So) Secret Site has the collection of transcripts bundled into one big file per season (with only three seasons). Scroll all the way to the bottom of the dS transcripts site, and you'll see the three big S1, S2, and S3 transcripts of all episode of the three individual seasons).
Explaining requires the Wayback Machine, but here you go for the definitive answer: it was 3 in the US and 4 in Canada (and other countries), as evidenced by this old page from William and Elyse's due South Page.
Specifically, this section here answers that question: 3 in the US, and 4 elsewhere (like the UK and Australia, in addition to Canada).
That is why the dS episode transcripts that were cribbed from the (very) old (and long defunct) Victoria's (Not So) Secret Site has the collection of transcripts bundled into one big file per season (with only three seasons). Scroll all the way to the bottom of the dS transcripts site, and you'll see the three big S1, S2, and S3 transcripts of all episode of the three individual seasons).
new due South advent calendar
Dec. 1st, 2025 08:10 amRegina Keim created and posted a new due South advent calendar over in the private Fraser/Kowalski Facebook group. Enjoy!
New due South advent calendar (FF #57)
Dec. 1st, 2025 08:06 amRegina Keim posted a new 2025 due South advent calendar on the private F/K slash Facebook community. Enjoy!
Per The Verge, The original Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III games are now available under the MIT CC license.
I have such fond memories of the interactive fiction game Zork - or rather its predecessor, Adventure. And now you can see exactly how you got "eaten by a grue!" or stuck in "a maze of twisty little passages, all alike..." if you took a wrong turn somewhere in the game, heh!
( Playing Zork's predecessor, Adventure, with my sister on my brother's mainframe terminal decades ago )
We LOVED that game! I didn't know what Interactive Fiction or Text-based Adventure games were, at the time - I was just a kid. I just knew Adventure was super fun to play, even though it was also difficult for us. I remember us eventually drawing maps as we explored the underground cave system that you got to by going through the locked grate in the streambed, using the keys you got from the small brick building in the forest, where you begin the game.
( what I learned from Adventure/Zork, and the downside of vivid visual imagination )
Anyway - I'm so glad other people can legally see it now. (Zork I/II/III and many of their predecessors and imitators been available for years, though unofficially and in that gray area of "it's not really legal but no one is pursuing anyone who ports it to whatever OS"; more than 25 years ago, I installed an emulator on my Linux computer just so I could play Zork/Adventure again.) Now people can study the code... or just download the game and play it.
(I am not a programmer but I just might study the code myself - I took some basic programming classes as a high schooler - good lord, the punch cards! - and as a kid, taught myself BASIC so I could write stupid little programs on my Commodore 128 computer that my brother bought me and my little sister for Christmas one year. Why, Yes: I am geeky - and kinda proud of it, lol!)
ETA: You can also play Adventure/Colossal Cave Adventure online in a browser here! Yay!
I have such fond memories of the interactive fiction game Zork - or rather its predecessor, Adventure. And now you can see exactly how you got "eaten by a grue!" or stuck in "a maze of twisty little passages, all alike..." if you took a wrong turn somewhere in the game, heh!
( Playing Zork's predecessor, Adventure, with my sister on my brother's mainframe terminal decades ago )
We LOVED that game! I didn't know what Interactive Fiction or Text-based Adventure games were, at the time - I was just a kid. I just knew Adventure was super fun to play, even though it was also difficult for us. I remember us eventually drawing maps as we explored the underground cave system that you got to by going through the locked grate in the streambed, using the keys you got from the small brick building in the forest, where you begin the game.
( what I learned from Adventure/Zork, and the downside of vivid visual imagination )
Anyway - I'm so glad other people can legally see it now. (Zork I/II/III and many of their predecessors and imitators been available for years, though unofficially and in that gray area of "it's not really legal but no one is pursuing anyone who ports it to whatever OS"; more than 25 years ago, I installed an emulator on my Linux computer just so I could play Zork/Adventure again.) Now people can study the code... or just download the game and play it.
(I am not a programmer but I just might study the code myself - I took some basic programming classes as a high schooler - good lord, the punch cards! - and as a kid, taught myself BASIC so I could write stupid little programs on my Commodore 128 computer that my brother bought me and my little sister for Christmas one year. Why, Yes: I am geeky - and kinda proud of it, lol!)
ETA: You can also play Adventure/Colossal Cave Adventure online in a browser here! Yay!
new dS word search (Fannish Fifty #55)
Nov. 17th, 2025 02:46 pmRegina Keim created and posted a new due South word search over in the private Fraser/Kowalski Facebook group.
You can access it here, if you can't see the group's posts because you're not a member.
You can access it here, if you can't see the group's posts because you're not a member.
FYI, over the past few days I have had someone else requesting to change my AO3 password 3 times.
I don't know if this is happening to anyone else, but... I just thought I'd warn people.
I think it is a person rather than a bot, because it seems a bot would be more likely to just keep sending and sending requests (meaning, more than 3 in 5 days).
But you never know. If it is a bot, it could just be going down a long list of hundreds or thousands of usernames and coming back around to mine after going through the list.
Be careful out there!
According to this CBC article from October 30, this past summer, Canada tourism hit an all time high!
Well of course it did! Who would want to come to the US right now?? The US is a flaming dumpster fire right now and - as far as I can tell - will continue to be until the current clown and all his flying monkeys get kicked out in 2028. I wish I could live in Canada for the next 3 years, myself.
ETA: Oh, CBC also reports that US tourism is projected to be DOWN $5.7 billion by end of 2025. Are we great again yet? No. No we are not.
