[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@mudlark @puroandson

True story.

In late 1962 or early 1963 (so Winter) my mum was clearing out the larder in our not-centrally heated council house. It was cold, so Dad made her a Whisky Mac (whisky and ginger wine) in a small tumbler. She took a sip, no doubt thought “oh that’s nice” and went back to the larder.

A few minutes later she turned back and found the tumbler almost empty, a Dad-sized shot of scotch and 3-to-1 ginger wine gone.

Two-year-old me was found sitting in front of the fire in the living room and every time anyone came near me I went “Go ‘way”. At no time did I lose consciousness and, this being the 60s, nobody thought to rush me to hospital.

For some reason I have no memory of this, but @sirclockface‘s dad can verify.

Next up: Cousin John’s Dolgellau wedding (possibly with amusing photo).

 

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@puroandson

You need normal clothes  – jeans/ shirts/ sweaters, a decent pair of trainers – and a warm coat. He is male and, therefore, does not need multiple anything. Everything he needs, bar shoes and coat, can easily find in a 55 litre rucksack and a carry-on bag.

Thermal underwear is only needed is he has some weird autoimmune disorder, and I am guessing you would have spotted that by now.

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@denvaldron

See, if only your original post had been that concise instead of hogging a board, for which posts of that length are not well suited, like a fat man in the back seat of a Boeing 737…

You didn’t come up with a theory, you saw the face of Jesus in the smoke and wondered if it was the same face of Jesus as when the same people set a different fire, and … might they even be the same fire?

Writers recycle all the time because a) there are only so many ideas to go around and b) they tend to write about what interests them.

Editors take writers’ output and think a) “Oh God, who am I going to cut this into a coherent story” and b) “Oh shit, who’s got the lawyers phone number – I’ve seen this before”.

FanFic authors don’t understand this and they find it so much easier to steal other people’s ideas, rather than try to come up with their own.

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@denvaldron

Fucking hell. Writers recycle ideas, while producers and their lawyers understand intellectual property law.

Who’da thunk itzzzzzzzz…

 

 

 

(T’Pol, in Star Tek: Enterprise was going to be called T’Pau (Spock’s mother (grandmother? Can’t remember, don’t care) but then they realised they would have to pay a fuck off big residual to the writer who created the character, so junked the idea)

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@janetteb

but with the weather warming up,

Now you’re just taunting us.

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@puroandson

Apology not required – it was an empirical observation, not a criticism.

(And @mudlark is entirely correct on the matter of beer. Remember, the human body is a machine for turning English beer into American beer)

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@puroandson @cathannabel @mudlark @jimthefish

MEANDERING THOUGHTS ALERT!

The writing of which Puro speaks was that associated with the police negligence during a soccer match and the ensuing pandemonium and tragedy.

This above sentence is one that would only be used outside the UK (maybe even Europe). Britons and many Europeans would just say “Hillsborough” know exactly was was meant. Iconography (or whatever its metaphysical equivalent is) is really context sensitive. But there’s something else.

Some of you will know this:

Aberfan is a village in Wales at the heart of what was once the huge South Wales coal field. Over it loomed gigantic slag heaps, the waste material from decades of mining. On 21 October 1966, after days of rain, what I believe is called a second-order transition happened, and the slag heaps essentially liquefied and became thick slurry. About 1.2m cu metres of slag flowed down the valley sides  40,000 cu metres of which, 12 metres (39 ft) deep, crashed into Aberfan’s Pantglas Junior School, which had just started classes. It killed 144 people, of which 116 were children aged 8-12. It was the last day before half-term holiday.

It’s the earliest memory to which I can put a specific date, because of a specific image of a rescue worker (in my head a soldier, but almost certainly a miner) giving a hot drink to a young girl.

A couple of days ago ITV showed a documentary focussing on the mothers of the dead (probably region-locked, alas) which trended on Twitter to massive acclaim. But what fascinated me was the number of not-that-young British tweeters who has never heard of Aberfan. They were amazed and appalled, but ignorant (in the most technical sense).

How is that possible? How is it even permissible?

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@craig

Would not presume to add what @puroandson’s comprehensive answer, but a couple of things:

Pachelbel’s Canon in D was largely forgotten until the early 20th century and not really popular until the early 70s. I first heard it when visiting friends in Boston in the 90s (it really wasn’t as ubiquitous as it now is, even that late) and, left to my own devices for an afternoon, wandered into a record store near Harvard Square and this was being played. This child of the 60s and 70s thought it the most exquisitely beautiful thing he had ever heard, but for some reason  didn’t ask what it was.

Then a couple of years later a housemate played it and I thought to ask. Of course it is now so common it is cliché.

Then a little while ago I found list of pop and rock songs based on it (and another of those based on Bach’s Air on a G  String). I now can’t find it. Fortunately, Wikipedia is useful for something (although not as comprehensive as the list I saw): Works based on Canon in D.  Ah, here.

On a side note, according to Howard Goodall (who knows his shit) the pentatonic scale – the black keys on a piano – is found in every system of music in the world.

So, roundabout way of saying: certain beats and tones are very appealing to everyone and come around time and again. But fashion is capricious, so “influential” is a bit of an empty word.

A good choon is a good choon. This is a very good choon and, I suspect accidentally, the best pop song about depression ever:

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@missy

Moved to ‘t pub

Why, oh why, do some people carry on about racism?

Probably because it is one of the great evils of society, and the antithesis of civilisation, which when allowed to fester results in the industrialised genocide of 6m Jews and 2m other minorities.

Our idiot new Prime Minister got the faithful all excited by saying “citizens of the world” are citizens of nowhere. The Financial Times saw right through the subterfuge, calling it an attack on a ‘rootless international elite’. Unlike Theresa May(hem) the FT staff had paid attention at school. “Rootless cosmopolitan” was a Stalinist antisemitic slur, picked up enthusiastically by the Nazis. “Citizen of nowhere” sounds awfully like “rootless cosmopolitan”.

People carry on about racism because it is a spitefully lazy way of thinking, which leads to people dying for the colour of their skin or the heritage of their parents.

And you are old enough to know this, so knock it off.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

“Like a Hellmouth”

I’m in.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

Oh well played, Sir!

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@cathannabel

I only used VPN to log in. Once in, I turned it if and that seems to have flushed whatever caching issue was stopping the problem resolving properly.

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@ichabod

Virtual Private Network

The one I use is TunnelBear  https://www.tunnelbear.com

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@badwolf11

Yep – a few have had the lockout. Usually it clears after a bit, but if it doesn’t log on via a vpn (seesm to be IP blocking) and that clears it.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@winston

Ah, that might be why my VPN login workaround …er… worked.

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@puroandson

She was, indeed, in Scissorhands. Also Mermaids, BeetleJuice, Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael, Girl Interrupted, Age of Innocence and the sublime Heathers. More recently, Black Swan and Spock’s mum in the Star Trek reboot.

I think you are supposed to have an issue with the title (stylistically it is very much a homage to John Carpenter)

SPAWN!!! What did you think of Josey Wales?

Could not get past the 1st episode of S2 of Under The Dome (and only finished S1 out of morbid curiosity).

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@puroandson

You must watch Stranger Things. It’s on Netflix (being a Netflix show).

It has Winona.

It has a proper early 80s feel.

It has, in Millie Bobbie Brown, a crop-hair 12(-ish) year old with actual, real, 100 degrees proof spirit charisma.

(You will barely recognise Winona at first, then the camera catches her at an angle and you see the Those Eyes. That might just be a me thing.)

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@blenkinsopthebrave

That is also my personal favourite of many, many Red Dwarf scenes. That and “Everybody remembers where they were the day Cliff Richard was shot”.

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@theconsultingdoctor @puroandson

(Moved from ep discussion)

It appears to be an IP address block, rather than username (I tried setting up a new name and got the same message). A work-around is to use VPN to log in. But both @craig and @jimthefish seem to be busy elsewhere (real life, huh?) – need to wait for them to confirm.

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@jgalt7

We already know what The Hybrid is. That was explained in-text. That story is done.

However, we still don’t really know why River reacted to Clara as she did during the seance in Name of the Doctor, nor what she meant with her enigmatic final words to Eleven about how she could still be there.

If Moffat decides to go there, I think the explanation will be a lot less sci fi and quite a bit more filial.

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@mudlark

Yes – a key difference between a noun and a proper noun!

 

(Anyone else have issue logging in recently due to an attempt to brute force a password?)

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@missy

I did however quite enjoy Babylon  5 and then they took it off?

Erm, no – it finished. It was conceived from the beginning as a 5 season story. Alas, the seemingly inevitable machinations of US network TV meant a) a big falling out between Claudia Christian and JMS and b) the 5th season getting badly compromised (partly as a consequence of a).)

But it was never intended to go longer than 5 seasons. Crusade was supposed to be its sequel, but it never got past the initial 13 ep order (and even they got dicked around by the network).

(Interesting tidbit I only heard recently: Michael O’Hare (Sinclair) left after one season and was replaced by Bruce Boxleitner as Sheriden. It was not known until O’Hare’s death (because JMS agreed to keep confidential until then) that he left because he was finding impossible to control his schizophrenia – and he refused point-blank to allow production to be halted while he received treatment, since that would put his cast-mates’ job at risk.

Not all changes are network politics. Sometime they are humanitarian and stem from one person’s fundamental decency in the face of terrible hardship.)

@blenkinsopthebrave

I tend to be a bit sceptical of CE – he is a fine actor, but his track record is a bit, shall we say, luvvy. He’s and actOR.

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@puroandson

He loved the people of Gallifrey because he was theirs and they were his.

And he saved them(1) too.

 

1. With a little help from his friends and a weapon with a conscience.

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@puroandson

Quite.

He didn’t got to a barn, he went home and they didn’t grass him up, turn him in or drive him away. They made him soup.

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@ichabod

but why “they’ll kill you!” isn’t that clear to me.

Oh, come on.

Anyone who has ever paid attention knows who “they” are. “They” are:

• “The Man”;
• “The Powers That Be”;
• “The Lever Pullers”;
• “Those in the Castle”;
• “The Inner Circle”;
• “The Insiders”;
• “The Politburo”;
• “The Powerful”;
• Those with power, which on Gallifrey means the Time Lords – Rassillon and everybody he has cowed and bent to his will. The entire corrupt structure of Time Lord power. Except it turned out he had less control over the common soldier than he (and, I imagine, civilians) thought.

Baffled that you are having so much trouble grasping this.

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@arbutus

No one has died (not recently at least).

Not so fast…

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@puroandson

Now, is paranoia a mental condition?

More of a symptom, or modifier to other illnesses I’d say (although WHO might disagree). For instance, a schizophrenic is not necessarily a paranoid schizophrenic. Paranoia is simply fear beyond reason.

@missy

 I wonder if we will ever find out the truth of the matter

We have the truth of the matter. Moffat does not waste time on wordy exposition and what is said in-text is the current truth. He doesn’t fritter away 5 lines of dialogue and whole minutes of screen time where one passing remark and a shrug will get the job done. There is no shred of evidence to even suggest that Missy is the Hybrid. On the other hand, the Doctor accepted without question that he and Clara are the Hybrid the moment Ashildr pointed out the obvious.

He doesn’t waste a lot of time explaining the class system of Gallifrey, either. Just “They’ll kill you.” Everything you need to know in less that 5 words.

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@puroandson

Certainly the Council was very angry with him

Ah, the innocence of youth.

They exhibited anger.

But this the the person who had stopped the Time War and saved Gallifrey – and was worshiped by the common Gallifreyan. And they thought he knew who the Hybrid was.

The felt fear. Deep, utterly paranoid fear.

Read your history of dictators down the years and see who they are most likely to bump off (as I noted here – back on page 7!).

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@annamarie

Specifically, Reinette’s brain was compatible. Any old part of Rose would do.

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@puroandson

 maybe Jim who said this as well. It wasn’t a prophecy but a serious algorithim.

Indeedy. Not a prophecy, but a forecast (words that, semantically, mean pretty much the same thing, but contextually are entirely different – which is why argument by dictionary definition is so flawed).

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@ichabod

Some context:

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@ichabod

No, on the Yorkshire Moors where an unwary American is about to disregard advices to stay on the well worn path, before being attacked by a werewolf and moving to London.

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@craig @jimthefish

We need a new pub! (clicking links to it goes straight to the first page, rather than the required link – always the first sign of the apocalypse).

It must surely be time for The Slaughtered Lamb.

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@puroandson

what did you do to us?

I’m mean that way 😉

no subtitles for Rectify!!

So pay attention then!

 with Tom Hanks where he turns into a child?

Big.

There is a similarly themed and (imo) superior movie call Vice Versa with Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage.

And of course there are the two version of Freaky Friday (Jodie Foster and a surprisingly affecting Lyndsay Lohan, respectively)

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@puroandson @arbutus

The trick is, indeed, to foster a wide range of tastes. Life is more interesting when you find yourself unexpectedly absorbed in an off-the-beaten track discovery.

But also, make sure there is room for bubble gum. I will happily watch a bunch of episodes of Gilmore Girls because, despite sparky and quick-fire dialogue combined with comic chemistry between Lauren Graham and Scott Petersen,  its main virtue is that it doesn’t, in any way, require me to engage my brain. It is predictable, linear and wholly lacking depth – and deployed possibly the worst male Mary Sue(1) I have ever seen – but sometimes that is what you need for what ails you.

The Marvel/ DC movies are much the same – I don’t really care about watching them in order and not even Joss Whedon can overcome their essentially formulaic nature (it is a well hidden formula, but it is a formula).

Having said that, Guardians of the Galaxy was a hoot.

As was The Hunt for Red October, a near-perfect action thriller.

And The Princess Bride simply transcends.

Have always been able to take or leave Agatha, though. See also James Bond.

And always remember what the Romans knew: only the Gods are perfect.

It is time Puro the Statistical Anomaly  went Mac. Nice little MacBook air would do the job.

 

 

1. For the benefit of Spawn, a character inserted into a story as wish fulfilment by the author, usually a thinly-veiled author or a thinly-veiled author’s conception of Mr/ Ms Perfect.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

Nice interview with Jenna Coleman (ignore the predictably puerile comments section)

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@puroandson

MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most important higher education institutions in the world.

Nora getting a job b4 the departure

Yup, at the conference. Superb piece of storytelling.

It starts to get really weird now 🙂

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@puroandson

I think it would be legit to see Leftovers as an existential text, but I’d be minded let the story play out to its conclusion first.

Have you got the the episode that focuses on Nora yet? Put some pillows on the floor to protect your jaw when it hits it.

Carrie Coon is my almost-but-not-quite age-appropriate crush.

Here is a number to ponder, lest anyone suggest that the 2% disappearance figure would be easy to recover from and why are these people still so traumatised, huh?: in WW1, only 5% of combatants were killed but that was enough put a war memorial every parish (bar 13) in the UK and throughout the Commonwealth.

Was very concerned that Puricle would find it too-rich meat and delighted that he likes it.

(And yes, I think Puro The Walking Medical Emergency will enjoy Fargo the TV series (although I have yet to catch up with S2))

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@doctor20

Because Christopher Ecclestone has a northern English accent, so it got written into the script as a joke.

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@missrori

Over at Tumblr there was a poster who argued that Clara is the most powerful hero in Doctor Who history because she kept the Eleventh Doctor from dying

This is an example of when fans would do well to rein in the hyperbole, because exactly the same could be said of Amy who wished the Doctor back into existence, after he had deleted himself from time.

I am very firmly in the Clara Fucking Rocks school for thought, but “who is the best companion?” is as big a fool’s errand as “who is the best Doctor?” – and long may we all uphold the honour of fools!

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@thedentistofdavros

Survivors

Some of us are old enough to have seen it first time round! Definitely worth watching.

There is a 2012-ish remake with Frema Agyeman in the first ep – but after that I bailed out for reasons that I won’t spoil (because I know not everyone agreed).

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@craig

[at]anjalietrade – really e=wants stuff sent to India…

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@pingpongpete1

Still not working.

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@jimthefish

Wot @janetteb sed.

And, anyway, it all built up do “I didn’t die to save the World, I died to save her. The rest of you got lucky,” moment. Which rocked beyond the telling of it.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

Those of you who were following the Dyfi Osprey project will be saddened by this, a salutary reminder of the challenges – and really tough decisions –  that come when repopulating wild species.

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@craig

Cheers. Hope you feel better soon.

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@missrori

Some people just can’t handle arc-based storytelling.

They need to be strapped to a chair, Clockwork Orange-style, and made to watch Buffy all the way through, repeatedly, until they get it.

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@craig

Am thinking that [at]amitgupta10294 about the takeaway marketing opps presented here…

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@stitchintime @theconsultingdoctor

Unfortunately such message are maddeningly hard to defend against (I think it was Einstein who observed that it is impossible to make something foolproof, because fools are so ingenious). It is not just newbies who get them – everyone does, it’s just that some of us are used to them.

If you get something that bothers you, pop over to Website Comments and tag @craig. He likes killing trolls.

I must admit the Nigerian scam is a new one. Usually it is Russian laydees looking for lurve…

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@stitchintime

The Hell Bent script was discussed at length, with theory and everything.

On the Hell Bent thread, which this isn’t.

@missrori

Actually, I think one of the most intriguing questions about Twelve is what his total story arc will turn out to be.  It has to be something bigger than Clara, bigger than finding Gallifrey…something cosmic that will tie everything together.

Why? It could, on everything we have seen, just as easily be the story of a lonely child who has slowly learned to belong. While saving the universe as a matter of course.

[Author]

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