Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

This fight is for everything.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

The revolution will be supervised.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Night Open PopCult Thread: GoT Is Coming…

Reader Interactions

190Comments

  1. 1.

    PsiFighter37

    Got my 6 bottles of Fire and Blood Ale and will be psyched to watch Monday night (unfortunately will be flying back from SF when it airs).

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne

    I have a question for the hivemind: G and I looked at an apartment today that’s in a large apartment complex that has a lot of amenities (swimming pool, fitness center, laundry rooms, etc.)

    Neither one of us has ever lived in a place like that — it is worth it? It seems to be mostly families with young kids. Is it like living in a hotel?

  4. 4.

    Cassidy

    @Mnemosyne: No. Personally, I hate apartments. We live in one now. The floors and walls are always thin. You can hear anything and everything.

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    @Mnemosyne: No, it’s more like living in a sorority house. But with less bitchniess. I used to live in an apartment with all of those amenities and it was fine. I liked the pool, didn’t use the workout room much, and the apartment had laundry inside.

  7. 7.

    Mnemosyne

    @Cassidy:

    We’re both pretty used to apartment living, so I’m not too worried about that aspect. Plus the floor plan we prefer is on a corner, so we would have fewer shared walls.

    It’s just kind of weird that we may be at a point in our lives where “luxury apartment complex” is something we can afford.

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    Never seen GoT. Maybe someday it’ll come on Netflix or Amazon and I’ll get to see what all the fuss is about.

  9. 9.

    Jewish Steel

    My favorite encounter at the park: The lady who looks a little like Ron Wood with the schipperke who is as other-dog-averse as basenji Cisco. We have to be careful that we don’t turn tail in the same direction, so well are we both trained by our sociopath dogs. Least favorite: Teenagers on the playground when there are insufficient single moms with toddlers to reach critical mass and scare them away. It’s an injustice I cannot right because nie moj cyrk, nie moje malpy.

  10. 10.

    IowaOldLady

    I’ve read GoT over the years as the books came out, and with the most recent one, I have to admit I’ve lost the thread of the plot.

    That trailer is awesome.

  12. 12.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jewish Steel:

    nie moj cyrk, nie moje malpy.

    This should definitely go on the rotating-tag roster… or just be carved over the header here!

  13. 13.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mnemosyne: I haven’t lived in an apartment in ages, but I always preferred the smaller buildings. It seemed more homey somehow. But of course that type of place doesn’t have the amenities.

  14. 14.

    Suzanne

    @Mnemosyne: The vast majority of non-luxury apartments out here have those things, and it’s not weird. It doesn’t feel like living in a hotel because you still have to cook and clean and take the trash out. Late-night drunken pool hijinks can be irritating if your unit is right near the pool. Like all things in life, you get used to it and it seems normal after a while.

  18. 18.

    MikeJ

    @Betty Cracker: I watched two eps and yawned a lot. It seemed to like it as if it were trying to be edgy more than actually being so. I never watched enough to hate it, just found it dull.

    I do understand that it is somewhat popular in spite of my meh-ness on it though.

  23. 23.

    Mnemosyne

    @Suzanne:

    We’re also old enough and Midwestern enough to wonder if we should be buying instead of renting. But G is very, very nervous about getting locked into a mortgage (it was one of the things his parents’ marriage hit the rocks over) and it’s not like houses are cheap here in So Cal, so continuing to rent is probably our best bet.

  29. 29.

    Cassidy

    @Mnemosyne: We’re about to rent a house; just signed a two year lease. To me, the amenities are never worth it. Fitness room? They’re always inadequate and I go to a gym anyway. Laundry room? No thank you. Our new neighborhood has a small waterpark, but the pool is always useful. I’ve always found that the amenities of an apartment are never up to snuff or seem worth what you’re paying for. And then they raise your rent the next year.

  33. 33.

    burnspbesq

    Listening to new records: Drive-By Truckers, Real Estate, La Luz, a reissue of a 1957 tenor sax blowing session with Hank Mobley and John Coltrane, Nickel Creek, the Autumn Defense.

  34. 34.

    Suzanne

    @Mnemosyne: I prefer owning to renting, myself, but I understand that it’s not everyone’s deal. Out here, homes are still reasonably priced enough that you can own something pretty good without being house-poor. Out where you are, that would be another story. Hell, that is actually the reason I don’t live there. We can afford a better lifestyle out here.

  35. 35.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ivan X: Breaking Bad never caught me and I haven’t tried True Detective yet. I like GoT, but then I also am interested in the War of the Roses and of Renaissance Italy.

  36. 36.

    Chat Noir

    “Veep” season 3 starts tomorrow night. Awesome writing (I love insult humor) and a superb cast.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    I’m so depressed today. It’s my brother’s son’s sixth birthday, and there was a party, the first family event since my mom’s death in late February. It just seemed so wrong that she wasn’t there.

    And she never will be again, of course, which just breaks my fucking heart in 10 million pieces. This sucks so much.

  38. 38.

    raven

    @Suzanne: I rent out our 900 sq ft house for $700 a month. That’s a big fenced in yard, washer drier and a great handyman next door!

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ivan X: Breaking Bad started out really slow, I thought, the first half of the first seasons dragged, but I stuck with it and I was glad I did.

    GoT is good fun, some of the plot lines work better than others, and a lot of characters/actors that are fun to watch.

  41. 41.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Game of Thrones is fucking bad ass. The wife and I have been psyched for tomorrow since the last season ended.

  42. 42.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker: A friend holds a party on her mom’s birthday with her mother’s friends. Although it sounds odd, it allows my friend time to talk about her love for her mom. Her birthday would have been today. The party was in the Washington area or I would have gone. She was a special lady, like your mom was. It’s okay to feel what you are feeling.

  43. 43.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Betty Cracker: It has been just over a year since my grandmother died so we have completed the cycle of holidays without her. It was really tough on my dad who had been very close with her. We told a lot of funny stories involving her and whichever holiday it was. It helped.

  47. 47.

    Betty Cracker

    Thanks, you guys. Sorry to be Debbie Downer. On a happier note, the Rays just came from behind to beat GWB’s former team, the Rangers! And I’ve got a snoring boxer on either side and full control of the remote since all the humans are asleep, so I’ve got that going for me.

  48. 48.

    geg6

    Ugh. The whole GoT thing is about as exciting and interesting to me as Dr. Who. Which would be about the level of gouging my eyes out with a spork or sticking an ice pick through my eardrums. BORING!

    But the filet mignon with Pinot noir mushroom sauce, roasted garlic potatoes, creamed spinach and modernized wedge salad we had for dinner tonight were fucking awesome. Tomorrow, it’s roasted cod on a bed of onions, potatoes and fennel with asparagus on the side might be even better.

    Fennel is ten times more exciting than GoT.

  49. 49.

    RSA

    @Vince:

    That’s because the last two books were mostly wheel spinning.

    I read the entire series, gradually losing interest all the way. (I can understand why people like it; it’s just not my thing.)

    But here’s someone who really hates the books (and TV show).

  51. 51.

    Walker

    @Vince:

    The same thing happened to Jordan. They are both “discovery writers” which means they have minimal outlines and make up a lot as they go along. Except that when you do that in epic fantasy, you eventually get overwhelmed by all the viewpoints.

  53. 53.

    RuhRow_Gyro

    I saw an Obama bumper-sticker on a Prius earlier this week. The driver was plump.

  58. 58.

    RuhRow_Gyro

    It’s not as simplistic as saying that all Subaru drivers are gay and all Prius drivers are fat. There are probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of drivers in each of those categories. And in any group of this size, there will be a distribution of sexual flavors, and body mass indexes. There are for sure some closeted heterosexual people who drive Subarus, as an example.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @geg6

    modernized wedge salad

    Okay, I’ll bite. Does it involve sculpting the lettuce into a reclining nude?

    With you all the way on having zero interest in the whole Whoverse. No HBO, so never seen GoT, but from descriptions it would fall well outside of the column labeled ‘engaging’ for me.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    @JPL

    What about Honda drivers? Not that I’m asking for any particular reason.

    Floccinaucinihilipilificationistic.

  66. 66.

    raven

    This is the hot shooting team that won be 5 bills by winning by the largest margin in the first round. Rain trey’s bucky!

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: Actually, there still are a reasonable number in WI and probably in New England as well. I am still holding out hope that the new company that owns and is making Saabs will bring them back here by the time I need to replace mine. If not, I will probably end up like a Swedish driving version of Inspector Morse.

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    @efgoldman:

    Raises hand, lowers hand, wanders off into field to kick a Subaru.

    Honestly don’t know what brand to get enthused about next, if it’s even possible. Cars are so separated from their owners anymore WRT doing any meaningful work or even basic maintenance…they’re about as engaging as a mobile microwave. I LOVED fiddling with my first Saab–a 99 EMS (99 being the model, not the year, which was ’78). They were so many lightyears ahead of other marques it wasn’t even close.

  69. 69.

    cbear

    @Betty Cracker: So sorry you’re having to go through this, Betty.

    I lost both parents and my brother and know what you are experiencing–it sucks!!!
    But, it does get better and I’m glad you have family close by for comfort–hopefully including those of us here on BJ who care about you.

    Peace.

  70. 70.

    MikeJ

    @Omnes Omnibus: I liked True Detective a lot, but I’m not sure I would have had the patience for it had I not binged it. Watching the first five eps in one sitting helped greatly.

  74. 74.

    Steeplejack

    @Porco Rosso:

    And somewhere Princess Mononoke is watching Porco Rosso on Blu-ray. The circle of life.

    Personally, I feel that if everyone was required to watch My Neighbor Totoro once a year the world would be a much nicer place.

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @MikeJ: The remake is just a modern caper film that uses Minis. It is okay. The original is awesome. When you see Caine arriving at the Royal Lancaster Hotel after getting out of prison, you can see the building in which I lived in London in the background. Lovely, lovely Westbourne St., W.2.

  86. 86.

    Betty Cracker

    @raven: I used to drive a ’68 Chevy short bed side step with a column shift. This was in the mid-80s. It was a great truck. Wish I still had it.

  87. 87.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: Good memory. Do I get extra credit for knowing Adrian Belew? And Victor Wooten thought he knew me at a show last fall – his face lit up, he grabbed me and hugged me, and said “I’m so glad you could come!” Then looked at M. Q, who’d been at Victor’s Bass & Nature Camp the previous week and said “I know you, man.” Kind of odd.

  93. 93.

    Mike in NC

    Watching “Ripper Street” on BBC America. Kind of a yawn, but still better than 90% of the crap on cable TV. Really waiting for “Game of Thrones” on Sunday night, along with “Walking Dead”.

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    Enough dirty dishes, pots, etc. built up to make dragging the dishwasher over to the sink and running a load through it worthwhile.

    Always have a nagging feeling that somewhere in the abode lurks one item that should go in.

  97. 97.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @MikeJ: Posh bastard. Knightsbridge or South Ken? The natives in my area were quick to point out that we were in Bayswater not Paddington. OTOH, I was half a block from a tube stop on the Central Line.

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    Dunno if you’re still around, but I’ll throw in my two cents.

    I have lived in a lot of different situations in my adult life, mostly rentals. What I have learned (that is relevant to your question, I think) is not to prejudge the “genre”—high-rise, detached house, garden apartment, “luxury apartment complex,” whatever. Within each category there are numerous variations. The main thing is to concentrate on the handful of things that would matter to you in any living situation and then see how those needs match up with what the prospective place is offering. You can live in a luxury apartment complex and not feel required to make use of all the amenities. It may offer other things that you like, e.g., solid construction that keeps you from hearing the neighbors, proximity to parks or restaurants, etc.

    And I agree with Suzanne above that housing prices are so crazy in Los Angeles that you shouldn’t beat yourself up if you decide not to buy.

  100. 100.

    Fair Economist

    The GoT books went downhill after Book 3. Martin said he had an overall plan but when he started writing the book after Book 3 he decided it wasn’t working and threw it out. So he’s basically been winging it for the past two books, trying to connect things back to something like his originally planned ending. As a result, each of the last two books took as long to write as the first 3 put together, and they have a meandering feel to them. I still enjoyed reading the books, but they didn’t have the same punch as the first 3.

    So expect this season and the next one or two to be relatively disappointing, although still decent.

  103. 103.

    Steeplejack

    @Mike in NC:

    Ripper Street has really been losing me this season. Seems sort of aimless, and I see by the DVR that I have fallen three episodes behind. Apparently no longer “must see” TV.

  106. 106.

    Betty Cracker

    @cbear: Thank you.

    @raven: That’s a beaut! Mine was beat up with a coat of primer instead of a proper paint job. It was my first vehicle I acquired as an adult. Now I drive a crappy Beetle that I’ve had for 10 years. The engine’s still good but the rest of it is deteriorating.

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Betty Cracker:

    Now I drive a crappy Beetle that I’ve had for 10 years. The engine’s still good but the rest of it is deteriorating.

    It has patina. It is worn in. Think in marketing terms.

  109. 109.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @raven: I see that picture and wince at what I expect it would sound like! Hence the dedication.
    I have a soft spot for mid 60s vehicles – saw a 65 TBird in a parking lot last night – mint. Guy was sitting in it so I said “nice ride! 65, right? the headlights are wrong for a 64.” The guy looked pretty surprised and looked at M. Q, who shrugged (only knew it was a Bird when I told him; strictly a GTI guy).

    Close game now – kinda in the wrong direction (sorry Omnes).

  110. 110.

    raven

    @Betty Cracker: That is John Deere Blitz Black. They paint the wheel wells of tractors with it, it’s an old school alkyd paint. It only cost $30 a gallon and it’s like rock. The funny thing is that hot rodders get it but lots of people say, “wow, it will be really cool when it’s done”. In fact, this great African American body and fender dude didn’t want to mess with the body work so he would tell me what to do. When he painted it he called and said it was done. He and his buddy sort of shook their heads when I showed up and when they opened the tent I said “Fuck yea!!” He said “that’s what you wanted”?? Crazy ass white boy indeed.

  112. 112.

    MikeJ

    @Omnes Omnibus: South Ken, pretty much right across the street from the station. Posh? I was upstairs from the Rolls dealer. (Note: I never paid for this place. That’s what clients are for.)

  113. 113.

    Betty Cracker

    Wow, exciting WI-KY game! I don’t have a dog on this hunt (my dog done shat the bed), but this one is fun to watch.

  121. 121.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Betty Cracker:

    The first one without the person is the hardest. And it’s hard to know what the right note is to hit — you don’t want to wreck the poor kid’s birthday by being gloomy, but in some ways it’s worse to act like no one misses her.

  130. 130.

    mai naem

    @Mnemosyne: I’ve lived in one of those “luxury” apartments, a loong time ago. Most people don’t use the amenities. I personally would look for a smallish complex townhouse or condo owned by a private person who isn’t an asshole and is interested in keeping long term decent tenants at a reasonable rent rather than ripping off short term tenants. If you do end up renting make sure there’s not a bed bug issue in the complex or house. I have a friend I worked with who moved into a house with a bed bug issue and the owner didn’t disclose it to her. She ended up moving out but I would have sued the crap out of the owner.

  134. 134.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    $300 for me off M. Q’s boss!! He laughed at my prediction of UConn/UK final. He almost sneered and said “I’m not sure I can take your money.”

    Hell of a game too. Sorry Omnes.

  137. 137.

    Comrade Luke

    This has been one of the best tourneys in a decade, if not the best. So many great games.

  139. 139.

    Jewish Steel

    @raven:

    Here I am sandin the sumbich on the street!

    Your street is outrageously, unreasonably verdant.

    It’s been a rough winter.

  140. 140.

    Hill Dweller

    @raven: There ain’t nothing fair about a Calipari run program. How long will it take the NCAA to vacate his wins after Calipari leaves Kentucky?

  147. 147.

    CaseyL

    I haven’t had HBO very long, and haven’t watched GoT. But thanks to the internet I not only know all the main characters and plot points, I’ve also been able to watch what are essentially “highlight reels.”

    Now I have HBO, and an opportunity to see an episode as it airs. Happily, my usual Sunday night show, The Good Wife, is a rerun Sunday.

    My neighbors will be playing at a benefit concert for the mudslide victims, and I’d really love to go. But the concert is out in Arlington; they’re not on until mid-evening; and I don’t fancy that long drive home in the dark. I might guilt myself into going, but probably not…

  153. 153.

    Jewish Steel

    @raven: Ahh.

    It’s in the 20s here tonight. Total bullshit. I’m coming to live in your 900 sq ft mother-in-law cottage.

  154. 154.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    “The ten characters whose names you actually remember…”

    Heh. That’s a high estimate

  155. 155.

    trollhattan

    @Alison:

    Season 1 lurched here and there like a rabid kangaroo, but season 2 was simply brilliant. Profanely brilliant–godfuckingwhoringdamn Elane can sure cuss.

  156. 156.

    NotMax

    @Jewish Steel

    mother-in-law cottage

    More mellifluous term used here is ohana cottage. Pass it on.

    (In Hawaiian, ohana = family.)

    Some people manage to wangle around land use restrictions and have as many as 4 or 5 of them on the same lot as the main house (rented out). Used to know someone who lived in one which was officially described on the land map as a tool shed. And there was another who lived in what was labeled an shower outbuilding.

  157. 157.

    Porco rosso

    @Steeplejack:

    Mononoke was suposed to be Miyazaki’s final picture. Then came Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, and The Wind Rises.

    I agree that the world would be a better place with infusions of Totoro.

  159. 159.

    Jewish Steel

    @NotMax: Ohana cottage. Love it. Barely a consonant in sight.

    I wonder if I could even afford a tool shed in Hawaii.

  160. 160.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    G really fell in love with the floorplan, so we’ll probably end up doing it. The advantage to a large complex is that we don’t have to jump in right now — the rental agent said they get a lot of churn in the summer, so we should keep an eye on the website for when the prices dip down a little in June or July (and look for the ones with formica counters since those are cheaper as well). She definitely seemed more interested in having steady, long-term tenants than in getting us to sign on the line that day, so that was good.

    It may seem silly to have three bedrooms for two people (and three cats), but that way we can each have space for our own projects without getting them scattered all over our shared space. Plus the floorplan we looked at had a “Jack and Jill” bathroom between the two smaller bedrooms, so we could have privacy in our craft room or man-cave when we wanted it, or leave the doors open.

  161. 161.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Omnes Omnibus: Miyazaki’s work tends to be rather inoffensive and pretty benign-and as far as anime go, are the exception as they’re movies and not multi-episode series.

    OTOH, Paprika and Akira are definite mind-benders, but are considered some of the better works in the anime movie genre.

  162. 162.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Howard Beale IV: Anime just doesn’t engage me. I liked Speed Racer when I was a kid but that is about it. I don’t disparage it; It just doesn’t speak to me as an art form. French New Wave leaves some people cold; anime does the same to me.

    ETA: Some people will arrange there lives around a showing of Breathless; others couldn’t give a shit.

  163. 163.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I was getting ready to ask, animation or anime? Animation is a medium, but anime is closer to being a genre.

    My mother can’t stand animation. And where do I work? Sigh.

  165. 165.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: I can love me some animation. Enjoyed the first two Shreks for example. OTOH the Freleng/Jones WB things are art beyond compare. Also too, Pinky and the Brain. Poit!

  166. 166.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    Lots of room is good! Plus you are not under time pressure. You can spend the next month or two imagining yourselves in that space and mentally answering any questions or concerns that come up.

  167. 167.

    Belafon

    @Howard Beale IV: Have you seen The House on Poppy Hill (the review on imdb his horrible)? Miyazaki wrote this story about the two main characters so that he could bring up an interesting detail he had learned: The Japanese Navy helped the US and South Korea during the Korean War.

  169. 169.

    mai naem

    Okay, I’ve been wondering about this for a long time and I’m probably putting this too late in the thread for responses but whatevah…How does Newsmax afford to put ads on so many websites. I seem to see them in virtually every blog/news site I go to. Is it a Koch funded website? I’ve never clicked on the site and have no intention of doing so but do they get that many clicks to make money? Inquiring minds want to know.

  172. 172.

    Tommy

    @Mnemosyne: I will not laugh. I am single, no kids. I live in a five bed room house. In one bed room I have nothing but Legos (and my yoga stuff). My Niece is 5, I know there will be days where this room will be the coolest in the world. Another lots of books. The other I sleep in and a guest bedroom.

    I always assume there will be a date where I meet a women and she is like, wow you have a lot of books., I will leave her in said room and she will read and well …… if not put together some Legos.

  173. 173.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mai naem:Per wiki

    Ruddy started Newsmax.com on September 16, 1998, supported by a group of investors, including the family of the late Central Intelligence Agency Director William J. Casey. Later, Richard Mellon Scaife, Ruddy’s former employer at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review invested in the fledging company.[2] One of the initial board members was author James Dale Davidson who edited a financial newsletter. Davidson’s co-editor, Lord Rees-Mogg, former editor of The Times and Vice Chair of the BBC, later became chairman of Newsmax.[3]

    Wiki says they have revenues of 20-25 million/yr

  175. 175.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tommy:

    You have your books and your Legos to protect you
    You are shielded in your armor, hiding in your room, safe within your tomb.

  176. 176.

    Mnemosyne

    @Tommy:

    Actually, the date you want is with a woman who doesn’t think you have a lot of books … because she has a lot, too. Though that makes it more complicated if you move in together.

  177. 177.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: No, he wants to be seen as a reader – if he is. Dealing with shitloads of books is a down the road thing. Getting a second date is a more immediate thing.

  178. 178.

    Anne Laurie

    @Tommy:

    I always assume there will be a date where I meet a women and she is like, wow you have a lot of books., I will leave her in said room and she will read and well …… if not put together some Legos.

    Confession time: Spousal Unit & I have somewhere between ten and twelve thousand books in our 900-sq-ft, four-level house (& the shed we had put in, for the overflow). There aren’t a lot of duplicates, although it took us a good 20 years to stop immediately buying two copies of every new paperback we both intended to read. There’s also some forty years’ worth of sf pulp magazines (those are his) and 1,200 manga, and at least four filing cabinets’ worth of papercraft & needlecraft magazines full of patterns (those are mine). Around half the books, and the sf pulps, we moved in a Ryder truck from Michigan to New England, and then from our first rental here to the house we bought 20 years ago… since we were housemates even before we started dating, at least neither of us can complain it came as a shock to discover the other’s addiction!

    We go out to eat a lot, and usually when we do, we’re reading books instead of chatting with each other. Waitstaff used to look at us funny, sometimes — but now, of course, the only anomaly is that we’re reading paper instead of our separate phones!

  179. 179.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Nope. The kind of woman who says, Geez, you have a lot of books is one who doesn’t read and will end up resenting it if Tommy spends a lot of time reading. The one he wants is the one who says, You have almost as many books as I do!

    ETA: Full disclosure — even after several purges, I have 6 bookcases to G’s 4.

  180. 180.

    Suzanne

    @Tommy: The first time I went to his house, I told my ex-husband that he had a lot of books. What I really meant was that he was the first person I had ever met who had more than I did.

    When we divorced, he tried to take some of mine.

    “NO, THAT IS MY COPY OF THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG.” —Me, really pissed off

  181. 181.

    ruemara

    @Omnes Omnibus: OK, based on your animation tastes, I’d try Natsume Yojincho and FLC. Anime is as broad as the sky.

    I managed to give away a box of books today and only took back 2 on the grounds that I wasn’t quite done yet. I have 4 bookcases with books, books upstairs, books by my bedroll and my ex has about 4 boxes of my books at his parents from when we moved to CA over a decade ago. I need about a million dollars to convert this library to digital. And I want more books. Books=the best. But I need a spare bedroom for the toys, the art supplies an the computers.

  182. 182.

    Anne Laurie

    @Suzanne: The Spousal Unit and I have never combined our bookshelves (even though sometimes I read books he’s bought, and he reads books I’ve bought). That’s one of the main reasons we’ve been able to cohabit for going on 37 years!

  184. 184.

    Tommy

    @Anne Laurie: Confession time, my father lives in the house his grandfather built. He bought the house across from him for his books. I didn’t understand this as a youth, books everywhere. I know as an adult mom doesn’t like them and we got this. I got a lot of books.

    I said I don’t know if this or that, but when I bring a women into my house and she sees all the books and doesn’t get giddy about it. well that is a turn off. You don’t have to love books the way I do, but my experience, you won’t enjoy me reading them next to you.

  185. 185.

    Tommy

    @Mnemosyne: Yes, given. If I found somebody and we moved in and our biggest problem was too many books, well that is a problem I could live with.

  186. 186.

    Tommy

    Happy thought this early AM. I got all new office stuff installed over the last week. Painting yesterday. I came across something I had not seen in years and years. An audio CD. The Dead playing Solider Field 1989. I was there. My first concert ever. I recall dancing and dancing. Gosh I am getting old.

  187. 187.

    Betty Cracker

    @Anne Laurie: My husband and I first started chatting when we noticed we were the only two people in a pub who were reading. We talked about the books and agreed to swap them when we were done. That was 20 years ago! The books were “Crime and Punishment” (me) and “100 Years of Solitude” (him).

  188. 188.

    Porco Rosso

    @Porco rosso: Howl’s Moving Castle was the only one of those that I enjoyed at all. That particular medium escapes me.

    @omnes Omnibus: I’ve always admired Miyazaki’s craftsmanship and humanism. And then there are his scenes that can rip your heart out–like the flashback scene in Porco Rosso when the dying airmen ascend in their planes…

    As far as French new wave cinema goes… Well I did enjoy Pierrot le fou. (Not the 20th episode of Cowboy Bebop) by Godard recently.

  190. 190.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    @IowaOldLady:

    I’ve read GoT over the years as the books came out, and with the most recent one, I have to admit I’ve lost the thread of the plot.

    Currently, Jon Snow has been shown to be a werewolf and goes around with his shirt off trying to impress Ygrette, who seems to have the hots for this new wildling character who sparkles in sunlight. Ayra is being forced to participate in a battle to the death along with a Northern boy she doesn’t trust, up against one boy and one girl from each of the Seven Kingdoms, which King Joffrey is using to keep the masses entertained. And lastly, Tyrion has been inducted into a school for wizards after he accidently turned Bron into a pet owl.

    Hope that helps.

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