Carol the Dabbler

Do you mean just a couple of days ago, or last week? Did they say what sort of symptoms they had and/or how long they lasted? Alex is scheduled for his shot tomorrow, or rather later today (Thursday). I've got some other physical issues right now, and plan to wait till I'm feeling better, so that just in case I get significant side effects I'll be better able to handle them. I hope!

How are you doing now? And do you happen to know which company's vaccine you got?

We haven't seen it yet -- I sure hope we like it better than you did! Anyhow, thanks for not posting any major spoilers, and for warning us about spoilers in the video.

I took riding lessons also, and quit after a low-hanging branch knocked my glasses off. They were OK, and I wasn't hurt either, but I didn't really have the money to pay for riding lessons AND perhaps a new pair of glasses if they got knocked off again. I suspect some kids nowadays think that both of those would be fun, but that's all it is to them, something to do now and then for fun. What I was talking about was when most kids learned both of those things as a matter of course, because they were necessary skills for rural life, which was the life that most people lived up until very recently. I can't offhand think of a current-day equivalent. Using a computer, maybe?

I'm sure you're right about that. It's the old "use it or lose it" situation. Not all that long ago, people needed to keep using the math they'd learned in school, just to do ordinary things like balancing their checkbook. Nowadays, if they don't just let the bank's website do it for them, they do all the math on their calculator. And I've heard that students are allowed to use calculators in school, so they may never learn those basic skills in the first place. Maybe that shouldn't bother me. After all, hardly anyone knows how to ride a horse any more either, or how to grow their own food. Maybe this is simply one of those things that only bothers the people who remember how it used to be.

Thanks, Herlock! I'd guess that if you can think of only a few instances, then it's not at all common, either in canon or in other adaptations. Therefore it would seem to be a Moftiss cliche, a plot device analogous to all those Lone Ranger episodes where Tonto rides into town and is captured by the bad guys, who leave him tied up in a shed full of dynamite or the like.

Of course it is. Everything is a sign of getting older. I mean, what's the alternative? I see what you mean, but from what I've read, what's normal with age is absent-mindedness, but that doesn't mean you actually forgot something, it just means you didn't happen to think of it. Actual memory loss, as in you are no longer able to remember some things that you've known perfectly well for years, tends to occur more often in older people, but it is not normal.

True. (Though I doubt that's much consolation to him!)

In BBC Sherlock, John Watson seems to be kidnapped -- or else tricked into going somewhere he wouldn't otherwise choose to go -- on an average of once per episode. For example: Blind Banker: John is physically attacked on his own doorstep and taken to the Tong's hideout. Scandal: Irene fools John into meeting with her, letting him think he's being taken to Mycroft. Empty Hearse: John is drugged and put into a bonfire. So here's my question: Do you know of any examples of this sort of thing in Doyle's original stories? Or in other adaptations? Or do you have any idea why it's so prevalent in BBC Sherlock?

I've always disliked "memorizing" (in the sense of deliberately committing something to memory), as opposed to learning it in the course of using it. My memory seems to be quite good, so I trust that learning is as good a brain exercise as memorizing. I will also mention that I've been taking a supplement called PQQ that has very clearly improved my memory in recent years.

I've heard that the basic Johnlock concept has been bantered about since Conan Doyle's stories were first in print. Don't know that anyone wrote stories about it, though, they just wondered what was really going on at #221B. "Surgery" may actually be a pretty good analogy, then. It generally takes a while to recuperate, and the outcome isn't always positive. I know two people whose fathers died as a result of routine colonoscopies, and those aren't even surgery, just "procedures." Everyone sees things from their own perspective, and we're all pretty good at rationalizing what we want, telling ourselves that it's also good for other people. Mary tried to leave, thinking it would protect both herself and her family, but John selfishly wanted her back home with him, so he and Sherlock rationalized that they could keep her safe. I don't fully understand Sherlock's reason for taunting Vivian, but he seemed to be showing off, another selfish behavior. Neither of them intended to jeopardize Mary, yet if they hadn't done those selfish things, Mary would probably still be alive, somewhere. If Mary seems more selfish, that may simply be because she has a lot more to rationalize than us ordinary folks.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I can generally remember my husband's cell phone number, and my one brother's, but as for my other brother's or any friend's number, I have absolutely no idea these days. Used to be I could not only tell you any number that I called frequently, I could tell you what a friend's phone number used to be. I do try to maintain my arithmetic skills by doing most calculations either mentally or on paper before double-checking myself with the calculator, but will admit that I'm getting lazy. As for dates, I lost track of those when I retired.

You think there's any water left in the pool afterward?

Well, it's not like there are no fat Americans! But we're also taller on average than, say, people from Japan, so we have to weigh more just to be the same shape. Not sure whether I'm relieved to hear it's not just Americans -- or saddened.

Been a while since anyone mentioned wellingtongoose on here! Yes, I like hisser examinations of plot points, very carefully analyitical.