Jamie123

The books I would advise you to avoid like the plague are the "Left Behind" series by LaHaye and Jenkins. I have read most of them and I cannot believe how bad they are. The worst thing about them is that although they are so bad, and although you KNOW they are so bad, you can't help being sucked along. When you finish one book you won't be able to rest until you have bought the next...and you'll be dragged along for volume after ridiculous volume, gazing in disbelief at the plot-holes and glaring technical errors - and hating every minute of it!

Oh....don't forget John Wyndham! Novels like The Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes. And all the short stories too!

I love Asterix and Obelix too. Obelix is so delightfully dumb. I remember one story where they are (as usual) fighting, and Obelix says: "I wish I knew why we're fighting. I hope Asterix explains it to me later."

Be sure to read the "Hornblower" books by C.S. Forester. Set during the Napoleonic wars, they follow the adventures of Captain Horatio Hornblower - a very human naval hero of humble origins (his father was a doctor) who is tone deaf, can't dance and has few social graces. Don't feel you need to read them in fictional chronological order. A great one to start with is "The Happy Return" which takes place in the middle of Hornblower's career, and was in fact the first Hornblower book Forester wrote. Here are my comments on the canon: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower: describes how Hornblower first joined the navy. (Has some good bits in it, but is rather turgid in places. Reads more like a series of short stories than a true novel.) Lieutenant Hornblower: describes how Hornblower meets his long-time sidekick Bush, and how the two are forced to commit mutiny against their captain. (Great stuff - though the last few chapters are rather slow.) Hornblower and the Hotspur: as the least senior captain in the Channel squadron, Hornblower is frequently sat upon by his more "jerkish" superiors - but ends up having the last laugh! (Slow start, but gets better all the way through!) The Happy Return: Hornblower is forced to make an alliance with a dangerous madman, on the basis of the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" principle. No good comes of it! (Roaringly good cover to cover) A Ship of the Line: having fallen in love with a beautiful lady, Hornblower finds himself under the command of her husband, who is unfortunately an admiral. (Totally nail-biting at the end!) Flying Colours: following the events in A Ship of the Line, Hornblower and Bush are prisoners of the French. However, they plot a daring escape! (Totally brilliant!) The Commodore: now knighted and promoted to Commodore, Hornblower is sent to the Baltic to aid the Tsar of Russia. Unfortunately he has an assassin aboard! (Not as good as the two before it, but a worthy read nonetheless.) Lord Hornblower: Baron Hornblower (as he now is) is sent to put down a mutiny which threatens to destroy England's slender advantage in the war - despite the fact that he sympathizes with the mutineers! These are in chronological order, not necessarily reading order. I believe there are others in the series, but I do not have them.

1. Bring your own candy or drink into the movie theater? Yes. Back in my single days I would often go to the cinema on my own. I would buy a huge bunch of grapes from the greengrocer across the road and hide them in my coat on the way into the theatre. 2. Share you online digital movie/tv service account password with others so they can view it from their own house too OR use someone else's? For example Netflix / VUDU I never have done, and it never occurred to me to do this. (Mostly because my wife deals with all the home entertainment stuff. I can't even operate the TV remote, let alone find my way around Netflix.) 3. Invite a handicap/elderly person with you to an event so you can use their handicap parking tag? Nope - although I did once have a PhD student who used to borrow a handicap badge from a friend and use it herself. I remember once when she was giving me a lift to the railway station she parked her car and put the disabled badge on. I was uneasy enough about this as it was, but then she sprinted off across the parking lot. I said "For goodness sake Jane*, couldn't you at least put on a limp?" *Not her actual name. 4. Use the other gender's single occupancy bathroom when you are out because your own gender stall is occupied, ex. gas station, restaurant, etc.? Yes, but I more often use the disabled. (I'm disgraceful, I know.) Which reminds me of that episode of The IT Crowd where Gary gets found using the disabled toilet and has to pretend to be disabled! (Anyone seen that show? It's VERY VERY funny!) 5. Avoid a call at home/work by having someone else say you are not there, when you really are? I may have done this once or twice (much to my everlasting shame). This reminds me of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" where his mother gives him a stern talk about the evils of lying. Later that day she tells him to tell a caller that she is out, and he makes her stand outside on the front doorstep so he won't be lying. 6. Leave one movie and walk into another at the theater when finished without paying? (My 65+ year old single mother does this. She says, "oh the theater doesn't care as long as you buy some popcorn every so often". She has done this for years and will watch 2-3 movies per visit) Oddly enough it has never occurred to me to do this - but I suppose you could easily get away with it. (Though as Vort points out it is technically stealing, so I'd say no.) Now I think about it though, why don't cinemas operate like theme parks? They could charge an entrance fee for the evening, and let you watch whatever movies you can fit in. The way things are at the moment most of the seats are empty anyway. (I have a stepdaughter who works in a movie theatre - I'll have to ask her about it.) 7. You are at a no saving seats event/meeting, but you still toss your coat, bag,etc across several seats to save them? I generally despise people who save seats - unless they are saving one for me...LOL

I believe that handbook is available through Wikileaks. Though how reliable that version is...

OK fair comment. More to point though, I've got into trouble in the past posting web-links which have had anti-Mormon material on them. Rather than scour every web page for possible anti-Mormon references, I find the safest thing is to quote without linking and let the reader to locate the references (if they are sufficiently interested). P.S. YouTube excepted. So many people post YouTube links here (despite the vast number of anti Mormon videos) I guess that must be OK.

This is in bad taste I know, but it made me laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RTJ4vHoYUs (You've gotta like Alan Partridge!) Seriously though: the dictionary definition of "ornery" could be the way I am on a Sunday. I certainly was yesterday. I don't know how my wife puts up with me sometimes!

http://mylifebygogogoff.com/2015/02/mormon-excommunication-explained.html (I don't usually bother posting links to web pages because they are so easy to find with Google. In fact I had to google the quote myself to re-find it.)

Interesting...so "the hand" lives on...

Just out of interest, if a member resigns from the church, does that have the same effect on their covenants as excommunication?

I just recently read this: I take this to mean that an excommunicated person would not be judged (by God) for having broken his/her covenants, but rather as an ordinary non-baptized person would be had they done the same things. That's quite a radical idea. I'd always seen "excommunication is an act of love" as a bunch of flim-flam, but seen this way it does sort-of make sense. Afterthought: If this is true then when they annulled John D. Lee's excommunication, didn't they effectively put him back under God's wrath for the sin of mass murder?

"Coronation Street" nowadays has a ridiculous over-representation of gays: Billy - an Anglican priest (!!!) His sexuality is disapproved of by his bishop. Sean - barman. Boyfriend of Billy. The archetypal "gay best friend". A bit clueless. Todd - clever and manipulative (a bit like Thomas in Downton Abbey). He went through a phase of being truly horrible, but is improving now) Kate - daughter of factory owner Johnny Connor Caz (presumably short for "Caroline") - soldier-girl. Girlfriend of Kate, of whom she is over-possessive and rather manipulative. Sophie - daughter of car mechanic Kevin. Classic tomboyish lesbian. Quite religious. Caz's rival for the affections of Kate. Of these, I would say that Billy, Sean, Kate and Sophie are "nice" characters while Todd and Caz are "not so nice". We've gone a long way (I suppose) if writers are now comfortable creating two gay antagonists in a show - so long as they are balanced by twice as many sympathetic gays.

Not many people know this, but Shari Lewis (the voice and operator of Lamb Chop (sadly no longer with us (Shari Lewis I mean, not Lamb Chop (though Lamb Chop too I suppose now Shari Lewis' hand is no longer around to operate it)))) also co-wrote the Star Trek episode "The Lights of Zetar" (P.S. Apologies to everyone I may have scarred for life with the information that Lamb Chop was actually Shari Lewis' hand. But you had to learn the truth some time.)

They were talking about that thing on the news here yesterday - some people are worried it will be used to kidnap children. "Go to XYZ place and you will find the Pokemon you're looking for!" Child goes there: it turns out to be a lonely back-alley where the Gobblers are waiting. P.S. By "Gobblers" of course I don't mean turkeys; it's a Philip Pullman allusion. P.P.S. Whatever happened to Philip Pullman? He was all the rage a few years back! You never hear of him now.

You couldn't invent this stuff... Boris Johnson - Mr. Gung-Ho Brexiteer who we all expected to succeed Cameron as Prime Minister should the "Leave" vote win....but who bowed sheepishly out at what should have been his moment of victory...has now been appointed by Mrs. May as (of all things) Foreign Secretary. I hope that woman has some clue what she's doing!

I have quite a lot to do with interns in my job. (I teach computer science at a university.) Interns here are usually paid, and they have to go through an interview and selection procedure with their prospective employers. The internship usually takes place in the last-but-one year of their bachelor program. I sometimes have to visit them at their placement companies, talk to them and their employers about their progress and write reports about them for the university. I had an intern a few years back who had nothing but complaints about his managers. Going by his academic record (which was actually quite excellent) I foolishly took him very seriously and raised his concerns to his employers...only to have my ears bashed with a long list of complaints that he was slow, lazy, uncooperative, persistently late for work and constantly whining. After a several such interviews I had a "very stern talk" with him (though my "very stern" is not very intimidating) that however badly treated he considered himself he should "buckle down" and "button his lip" for the next few months for the sake of salvaging a good reference. Which advice fortunately he took. This is why (though I did express some incredulity at the mass-sacking) I'm not inclined to think this is a one-sided issue.

Actually I agree with you... As you go through life - and particularly towards the beginning - "older, wiser and better" people think they are teaching you lessons. And often they are teaching you lessons. Just not the lessons they think they're teaching.

If they were fired simply for signing a proposal then that is outrageous and I would suggest these kids steer clear of that company (or at least that particular management team) in future. Even granted that the proposal was "inappropriate" (I haven't seen the wording) they were there at that company to learn. People learn through their mistakes, which they never will do if the learning experience is always terminated at the first mistake. I think one of two things has happened here: The management of this department were unwilling to have these kids foisted upon them, and were looking for the first excuse to get rid of them. We have a disgruntled young lady telling her side of the story, and that the reality was somewhat different.

So tomorrow the UK will have a new Prime Minister. Since her main rival stepped down (mostly due to a monumental piece of verbal stupidity which I shan't go into) Theresa May has become Leader of the Conservative Party, and will be appointed Prime Minister tomorrow by the Queen. She'll be Britain's second ever female Prime Minister. But more importantly, she was anti-Brexit. That's right. Cameron stepped down as PM because he was anti-Brexit, to allow a (presumably) pro-Brexit successor to steer the UK through....umm...Brexit. And who is that successor? Another anti-Brexiteer! Already Theresa May has said she will not trigger Article 50 until after the end of the year. And I don't think she's going to trigger it at all. She'll come up with excuse after excuse about why "now is not the right time". That's how it will be, mark my words! Then again...I've been wrong before...

I think he was probably speaking figuratively, meaning that there was nowhere he could truly rest. His whole existence was one of service to others.

You're quite correct - people call it a "rowter" all the time and it drives me mad!!!!! I'm being ironic of course: different areas have their own pronunciations, but we all like to think ours is the CORRECT version. There seem to be two kinds of American: the ones who say "rooter" and the ones who say "rowter". My wife (who is from Maine) is a "rooter" person. The "proper" UK pronunciation is "rooter", but many people nowadays say "rowter" because they've been watching youtube videos made by "rowter Americans". AND IT MAKES ME SO MAD!!!!! ;)

"Steak President" made me think of this: Homophones are words which sound the same but are written differently. They can sometimes be mildly amusing: "Steak President". "Plank's Constant". I used this spelling consistently throughout my own dissertation and no one noticed - not even my adviser who I happen to know got a first* from Cambridge! (In mathematics though, not spelling.) Poster outside a church: "If it's just For Weddings and a Funeral (same font as the Hugh Grant movie) you're missing out" Have you read "Lord Fowl's Bane" by Stephen R. Donaldson? (brilliant book by the way - Thomas Covenant has to fight a gigantic bird to save The Land from the dreadful ur Pigeons.) Homographs are words which are spelled (but not necessarily sounded) alike: "She was only a whisky-maker's daughter, but he loved her still." Stan Laurel: "You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead." Probably the most irritating homograph (for me) is "router". As in: "I just bought a new router for my woodworking business!" "Oh, I guess you'll be able to connect to Wi-Fi there now!" Now this is a router: it rhymes with "shooter"... And this is a router: it rhymes with "shouter", "doubter" and "pouter"... The words are homographs. They are NOT NOT NOT NOT homophones!!!! And the next time someone tells me they want to include a woodworking tool in their network, I might just murder them. * A "first" is roughly what you Americans call "summa cum laude". In the UK we use the more prosaic term "first class honours". (There are also second and third class honours as well as degrees awarded without honours.)

The first time I heard that was when I was 10, in assembly at school; some kids got up and "performed" it, after which the teacher stepped in and asked "Does anyone not know why that is funny?" When answer came there none she proceeded to explain it anyway. Jokes are never funny when you have to explain them, and since this one had never been very funny to begin with anyway it was rather an exercise in dreariness. I prefer the Bronx-accent version anyway: On the matter of "Spring is Sprung..." though, you can't forget Tom Lehrer's "Poisoning Pigeons"... Has me in stitches every time!

"Whatever will be, will beeee...." (When I was just a leetle girl, I asked my mother, what will I beeee? Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here's what she said to meeeee....)