Random Thoughts X: Impromptu Interpretations

[Valka D'Ur]

Joe Biden’s full name, I believe, is Joseph R. Biden.

I don’t know what the “R” stands for though.

William Jefferson Clinton
George Walker Bush
Barack Hussein Obama
Donald John Trump

Joseph R____ Biden?

I could look it up on Wikipedia, but I’m not going to. I want to keep it a surprise for election day!

Rumpelstiltskin

 

[amadeus]

I was going to say Rickyricardo, aa-haa-haa.

 

[choxorn]

Ruthbaderginsberg

 

[Takhisis]

Ruthbaderginsberg

don't make me cry

 

[Ajidica]

Not worth creating a thread over, but the journalist Robert Fisk died:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54774539

Famous for being one of the only western journalists to interview Osama bin Laden, one of Fisk's books, The Great War for Civilization, had a massive impact on how I understood both Middle East politics and western intervention in general.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I'm reading The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, a novel about survivors of an apocalypse in Britain. Some of the characters in the book cling to the hope that they'll be rescued from the disaster, if not by the British authorities, then by the Americans. The book was published in 1951, so I suppose it must have been written while the smoke of the Second World War was still clearing. However, I was always under the impression that the Brits felt they'd already weathered the worst of it before we Yanks even got off our butts, and that, anyway, the US only got involved after we were attacked ourselves, not out of some sense of duty or kinship.

As a rule [these other survivors] showed little wish to join up with other parties and were inclined rather to lay hands on what they could, building themselves into refuges as comfortably as possible while they waited for the arrival of the Americans, who were bound to find a way. There seemed to be a widespread and fixed idea about this. Our suggestions that any surviving Americans would be likely to have their hands more than full at home was received as so much wet-blanketry. The Americans, they assured us, would never have allowed such a thing to happen in their country.

fwiw, Wyndham isn't a proponent of this thinking. His protagonists regard the "wait for the Americans to save us" folks as naive and probably doomed. But he has me wondering whether he's throwing a deliberate jab at a significant number of his countrymen, of his day. Were there many British at that time who viewed the United States as some kind of elder sibling who could be counted on when the going got rough?


EDIT: Oops. Meant to put this in the "questions not worth their own thread" thread.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I'm reading The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, a novel about survivors of an apocalypse in Britain. Some of the characters in the book cling to the hope that they'll be rescued from the disaster, if not by the British authorities, then by the Americans. The book was published in 1951, so I suppose it must have been written while the smoke of the Second World War was still clearing. However, I was always under the impression that the Brits felt they'd already weathered the worst of it before we Yanks even got off our butts, and that, anyway, the US only got involved after we were attacked ourselves, not out of some sense of duty or kinship.

Honestly, that's how a lot of Canadians see it, too - Americans late to both world wars, then taking the credit for much of what other countries did. Even on this forum, there are plenty of people who say Canada doesn't deserve recognition as one of the civilizations in the game, because we "never did anything."

BS. We've done plenty, and have the eyewitness accounts of the time (primary sources) to back it up, not to mention the war memorials over in Europe.

Even now, decades later, Canadian soldiers are being thanked by proxy, by descendants of those who were helped. It happened to me a few years ago on YouTube, when I happened to mention on a travel channel that I'm Canadian. A guy promptly said that Canadian soldiers had rescued his mother (a young child) and his grandmother during World War II, and if not for that, he himself would never have been born. Therefore, he said, he wanted to say "thank you" to a Canadian.

It was a humbling experience, which I passed along on CBC.ca on the next Remembrance Day so that any veterans reading might see that they are still remembered and the people they helped are still grateful.

 

[EgonSpengler]

"Phlogiston Theory" would be a good name for a band.

 

[amadeus]

I just noticed I'm closing in on 35,000 posts!

What should I do? I don't want to blow it!

edit: I just spent the last little while making something. It amuses me, and I hope you will get the slightest bit of amusement out of it too.

 

[Takhisis]

Not worth creating a thread over, but the journalist Robert Fisk died:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54774539

Famous for being one of the only western journalists to interview Osama bin Laden, one of Fisk's books, The Great War for Civilization, had a massive impact on how I understood both Middle East politics and western intervention in general.

Hell yeah, I followed Fisk for years until the Independent came up with their Independent Premium idea.

I just noticed I'm closing in on 35,000 posts!

What should I do? I don't want to blow it!

edit: I just spent the last little while making something. It amuses me, and I hope you will get the slightest bit of amusement out of it too.

Drop us a link when you do, luv.

 

[cardgame]

I just noticed I'm closing in on 35,000 posts!

What should I do? I don't want to blow it!

edit: I just spent the last little while making something. It amuses me, and I hope you will get the slightest bit of amusement out of it too.

I noticed my 13,131th post but I blew it

 

[Takhisis]

Clearly you should aim for the 15,151th since you've already passed the 14,141th.

 

[cardgame]

only 13 has the power, all my efforts now are futile

 

[Takhisis]

@Ajidica
https://www.independent.co.uk/voice...3-patrick-cockburn-the-troubles-b1539514.html

 

[amadeus]

Drop us a link when you do, luv.

35,000

And now for my thought: I like to think of Dante’s Peak as the thing that connects the James Bond universe (Brosnan) to the Terminator universe (Hamilton.)

 

[Synobun]

Tonight I went outside by choice for the first time since the beginning of August.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Tonight I went outside by choice for the first time since the beginning of August.

Did you survive?

 

[Synobun]

Did you survive?

No.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Dammit. Stop haunting us!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Dammit. Stop haunting us!

At least his ghost is kinda cute. I don't think I've ever seen a pumpkin with an expression like that.