There’s the usual collection of media talk, but also a bunch of questions, and some another piece of the William puzzle! Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
*indicates question was abridged
*Why is Cinco de Mayo big in the US, but not Mexico? Also, Mexican Independence Day is September 16. –Beth
Did the hat fill out its timesheet? –Stu
Hattoes, If you feel into an upholstery machine, how long would it take you to be fully recovered? –Azuretalon
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My grandmother used to make me Cambric Tea when I was sick–basically very weak tea with lots of milk and sugar.
I associate tea with comfort more than I do coffee. That’s been my experience in England as well–it’s a kind of universally applied comforting, consoling beverage. One of my (English) father-in-law’s first compliments to me was that he approved of my tea-making, because I made it very strong. He used to say that he liked his tea strong enough to trot a mouse across.
The best place I ever had afternoon tea was a place in Edinburgh called “Lovecrumbs.” They have lots of different kinds of tea and you get an entire pot to yourself. None of the pots or crockery match. And then they have many kinds of cake to choose from, some of the flavors being quite exotic. I think I had one that was pear and cardamon?
Constant comment is delicious!
I would not say that fan reaction to what’s going on in GoT is analogous to fan reaction to what happened to Luke Skywalker. There are two main problems, I think. One is the narrative arc both of the show as a whole and then individual characters. The show as a whole has always been building toward one important event–but the placement of that event in Season 8 is early so that it turns out to be the climactic event. And then several characters have veered off in crazy or sudden ways from their narrative arcs. The second and related problem is the way they are treating their female characters this season (well and last, to be honest, as well). And to some extent it does seem like the female characters are being written poorly in order to correctly motivate (and make heroic or heroically martyred) some of the male characters. (Linking an article on it below to avoid in-depth spoilery discussion.) Ah, actually I have thought of one more thing–lots of battles this Season and the battles have made no sense. Things are just happening because the writers want some result, and it’s completely obvious.
https://mashable.com/article/game-of-thrones-season-8-women/
Yeah, I agree with Jas here. I should have made some of those points, myself. Curse my addled brain!
sorry, I meant that it turns out NOT to be the climactic event
Actually, here’s another interesting take on what’s going wrong. I’ll link this guy’s comments below, but to summarize, he’s talking about two different styles of writer: plotters and pantsers. Plotters have the entire plot mapped out and often sacrifice character to make plot work. Pantsers (as in “fly by the seat of your…”) concentrate on character and have plot grow out of character–but this means that the plot can veer off and take a lot longer to work out than originally intended. GRRM is definitely a Pantser. The writers on the TV show have an established time by which they need to tie everything up so they are going to be Plotters. For the first 6 seasons we had a real focus on character and plot coming out of character. Now the plot is being foregrounded and the characters are not making any sense.
https://cheezburger.com/8363269/man-gives-insightful-reasoning-why-season-8-of-game-of-thrones-feels-different-without-spoilers?fbclid=IwAR3-FjbfEfrMCzxqMR4U3d0SA-Hhs-C3AyqPgFfKivJwiAvYT079payFLPk
My fav relaxation tea is the Yogi brand “Bedtime.” It has chamomile and valerian and is a kind of organgey-sweet-spicy flavor.
Despite making it regularly for my wife I’m one of those odd Brits that can’t stand tea, for the most part, it just tastes like hot water with a little bit of flavour. About the only time I have really enjoyed is when I’ve been in West Africa. There they tend to drink it extremely strong and with an excessive amount of sugar, almost to the point that you can’t dissolve any more into it. Thankfully they tend to drink it in small volumes, it’s not unusual to have it served in a shot glass.
How have you survived in the UK? Weren’t you shunned? A pariah?
Are they going to kick you out when Brexit goes through?
St. Patrick’s Day is a big thing in Ireland, seemingly both for tourists and locals. I don’t think they dye the river green, but it’s still a pretty big deal. As far as I could tell, they’re basically the same deal as in the US though, the main goal is celebrating how awesome it is to be Irish (or wishing you were Irish) by drinking too much.
That’s both interesting and disappointing.