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Carol the Dabbler

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Everything posted by Carol the Dabbler

  1. To all of you in the UK: 1. Are you familiar with the use of the term "john" to mean "toilet"? 2. If so, do you regard it as normal UK slang, or do you consider it strictly an Americanism?
  2. I agree: Reading (or writing) a story can offer temporary relief from real-world worries. Assuming, of course, that the story isn't too much like our real life! Thus, I suppose, the appeal of stories set in other places (e.g., Middle Earth) or other times (e.g., Victorian London).
  3. Photobucket has taken its vague threats up yet another notch: URGENT: Your account may be subject to deletion. If you would like to keep your photobucket account and any photos you have uploaded, reactivate your account today. -- where "reactivate" presumably means "send us an inordinate amount of money."
  4. Thanks, Martina, I've bookmarked that site for future reference. Unfortunately it's no help at the moment, because even though I can hear the music in my head -- well, as I said a while back: I do seem to be able to replicate the rhythm, but not the tune.
  5. I just WISH I could post a video of the tune that's been stuck in my head. It was probably being used as background music in an episode of either Friends or Ellery Queen -- so even if I could remember where I heard it, the source wouldn't identify it for me -- but it's orchestral, probably either classical or else old and quasi-classical. Dah dah-dah dah-dah dah-dah Dah-dah DAH plink-plink ... and so on like that. Gah!!!
  6. That could explain the death scene (though nobody except Shatner says it was Nimoy's idea) -- but Shatner is now claiming that Nimoy did that scene so that he could say he wouldn't play Spock again unless they let him direct a movie or two -- which wouldn't make sense if Nimoy wanted to avoid Shatner. Not so much infighting as resentment against Shatner's all-about-me tactics after executives Roddenberry, Solow, and Justman left. It was obvious to us fans that Kirk was basically becoming a one-man crew -- explaining science to Spock, explaining communications to Uhura, telling Sulu exactly what heading to take (thus bypassing Chekov entirely), explaining the engines to Scotty, etc. Either Kirk didn't understand the concept of delegation of authority, or else Shatner just wanted more lines for himself. Either way, it ticked off a number of the other regulars, including Nimoy. But Shatner and Nimoy somehow managed to maintain something of a friendship.
  7. You're proposing that Nimoy felt spiteful? If so, because of what? And if I'm misinterpreting you, please correct me!
  8. That's kinda what I was thinking. He's always been told he was THE star of the show, but then he saw how much more fan mail Nimoy got, so he's been living with that cognitive dissonance for over half a century -- and finally came up with an explanation that makes him feel better. But speaking logically, if I may, Spock has been more popular than Kirk ever since, roughly, "The Naked Time" in September of 1966 (first season of TOS, fourth episode). So A} why would Nimoy feel the need to make his character even more popular, and B} even if he did, why would he wait till 1982?
  9. As long as you're not buying a lot of groceries at a time, it might be easier to carry them home in bags, rather than deal with your own trolley. I assume you can use one of the store's trolleys while you're shopping? I know that what Americans call a shopping cart is called a trolley in British English, but I assume that yours is one of those smaller folding ones?
  10. Good heavens, they're now putting trigger warnings on dictionary definitions!!!!! So far, though, this apparently applies only to the definitions that automatically appear at the top of a Google search-results page. Some [but not all] words that they judge to be "derogatory" or "offensive" or "vulgar" in any of their meanings, are now partly hidden for just those meanings. They show just "Derogatory" or whatever, with a button to click if you decide you're brave enough to view the actual meaning. Hmm, I may kinda understand why this is happening. It's not a regular website, it comes up automatically with the search results, so you can't choose whether to see it or not, so they let you decide whether to view some parts of it. The definition I'm looking for is usually right at the top, so it's possible that this has already been going on for some time and I just never noticed. Still seems a bit odd, though. But if I don't like it, there's always DuckDuckGo (which puts a few definitions at the top of its results page, but doesn't even tell you which ones to be shocked by, let alone hide any of them).
  11. Thanks, Bev -- glad to hear that Speedy's is still in business! Hope that there are plenty of customers, and that Chris and staff are all doing well.
  12. Convincing her to change her mind may be a tall order. You might first see if you can explain your point of view to her in a calm, non-judgmental way, so that she sort of sees your point, even if she doesn't actually agree. That should at least take the edge off of her antagonism, even if she remains basically prejudiced. People can just as easily mess themselves up on drugs that are currently legal. We just lost one family member to nicotine addiction (she died of lung cancer) and a year ago we had lost another to alcohol addiction (after being a pathetic drunk for years, she died of liver failure). If I were in charge (which thankfully I'm not), I'd start by requiring the federal government to recognize medical cannabis in the states that have legalized it. The feds are giving the idea some thought now, but will still arrest people even in those states. After that, I'm not sure. I used to know a woman who was so routinely high on pot that I thought she was just naturally kinda spacey -- till I ran into her after not seeing her for a few years (during which time she had apparently kicked the habit), and she was like a real person. So I'm well aware that constant marijuana use can cause problems. But, assuming that there is such a thing as an addictive personality, so that the person is likely to end up being addicted to one thing or another, I think I'd rather see them addicted to pot than to alcohol or nicotine, especially if they ingested the pot rather than smoking it. As far as I know, magic brownies don't cause cancer or organ failure, and of course there's no second-hand smoke. So I'm thinking that -- once people had a chance to see that Grandma could use pot for her glaucoma without turning into a raving lunatic -- I would probably require the federal government to recognize recreational cannabis in the states that have legalized it. But I reserve the right to change my mind. What drugs are your two people addicted to?
  13. This is six years old, but I don't recall seeing it before: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/09/07/william-shatner-believes-leonard-nimoy-cooked-up-spocks-star-trek-death-leverage/619502001/ Near as I understand it, Shatner is basically saying that he thinks Nimoy conspired with producer Harve Bennett to have Spock killed off in Wrath of Khan in order to make the character more popular and also to give Nimoy the leverage he needed in order to get to direct the sequel(s). What do y'all think about Shatner's interpretation of those events?
  14. Our cats rarely if ever look at themselves in mirrors, even though they have easy access to the bathroom mirrors. But we've seen Dora, several times, apparently looking at her reflection in the shiny metal base of a wall lamp. No idea why.
  15. I've been seeing click-bait articles about weird, skimpy things that some people wear to the grocery store, but I haven't bothered checking them out. For one thing, they had to be staged, right? I mean, how long would a person need to hang around a grocery in order to photograph that many odd outfits? I may change my mind about that, however. Last time we went to the grocery, there was a young woman headed for the door some distance ahead of me. Please bear in mind that I haven't yet made peace with leggings -- to me they still look like something you'd wear *under* your actual clothing (rather than instead of). Well, this gal was wearing a top that ended about halfway down her buttocks. At first I thought that was her entire outfit (other than shoes and possibly underwear). But as I got a little closer I could see that she actually was wearing something below -- but it was either transparent or the same color as her skin, with a faint darker lacy design. If that's the latest thing, I've got a lot of catching up to do!
  16. I find their point of view simplistic and counterproductive myself, but I kinda try to understand why they might be that way. Many people have great difficulty understanding why anyone would disagree with them, because their point of view seems so obviously correct to them. I suspect that's because they've always looked at things from a certain angle, so it doesn't occur to them that the other person might be a very nice person who simply looks at things from a different angle -- or that someone might agree with them on most things, even though they look different, etc. Besides, it's probably human nature to distrust anyone who's not a member of your in-group. (That distrust would have had real survival value back when members of the neighboring tribe might be out to kill you.) Our parents may have encouraged us to ignore that feeling, or may have encouraged us to pay special attention to it. Some people can later overcome the training they had as a child, but it's neither automatic nor easy. If your mother's niece has seemed like a reasonable person in the past, you might try giving her another chance. Try to understand her point of view (which doesn't mean you have to agree), and explain your point of view to her.
  17. I'm sorry your back is causing you such pain today, FL! (Please see the Moderator Comment that I added to your post.)
  18. From that article: Have never had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Gatiss on stage, but I'm impressed!
  19. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny There are a couple of interesting new characters, one being the now-adult daughter of an old colleague of Jones's. She's one of those basically good but not immune to money types that tend to crop up in Indy's universe. Also there's a cheeky mid-teens kid with amazing mechanical skills. This allows Jones (now around 80, albeit fit and healthy) to specialize in being the brains of the operation, at least when he can get the others to listen. Of course there's a powerful historical artifact being sought by evil forces, requiring intervention by Indy and crew on the side of (mostly) righteousness. The movie is set in the 1960s, consistent with how long it's been between the earlier Jones movies and this one. But a number of scenes are set years earlier, with a younger Jones. I thought boy they sure have good makeup, but it turns out they used a younger actor with a CGI face -- very convincingly done! The cast includes John Rhys-Davies (Gimli in LotR), Toby Jones (Culverton Smith in "The Lying Detective" and Dobby the house elf in the Harry Potter movies), and Mads Mikkelsen (brother of Lars Mikkelsen, who played Charles Augustus Magnussen in Sherlock's 3rd series). All in all, I enjoyed it, but being a recently made movie, it has the requisite amount of loud noise (including music) that often made the dialog hard for me to hear, so I had trouble following the plot at times. Hoping the DVD will have subtitles!
  20. Actually it's the aphid larvae that eat leaves, and the ladybug larvae that eat the aphid larvae. I've seen it happen on my nasturtiums -- though not quite as soon as I was hoping.
  21. I hadn't actually thought much about it before, but it suddenly occurred to me a while back that roughly half of what I'd been calling lady bugs all my life were actually gentleman bugs! I suspect, though, that the "lady" part of "lady bug" and "lady bird" refers not to the beetle's supposed sex, but rather to the Virgin Mary, who seems to have some connection with those beetles in Scandinavian and Germanic countries as well. Added: the internet seems to agree. Apparently aphids had been destroying crops, and after the farmer prayed to Mary for help, the little spotted beetles came and ate the aphids.
  22. Sounds like a good premise for an entertaining show. Maybe I'll spring for the DVDs one of these days. Amazon (US) has them, so I assume they're also available in the UK for people like me who A] don't have high-speed internet service, and/or B] want a copy that they can rely on re-watching years and years from now.
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