The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXV

[Flying Pig]

Let's ask the NY Times!

He naturally writes a lot more, both before and after, leaving you to read through a bunch of unnecessary crap to get to the answer.

That makes a lot of sense. Hence Metatron's instinctive answer that opera avoids the vernacular, while musical theatre always uses it: understanding the words distracts from the music.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Seems so, and good on them, I say. It's littering with the added bonus of potentially starting devastating fires.

HI! Click me, I am a link!

I am 100% for enforcing littering fines on smokers who throw their butts out the window.

I am 100% against draconian fines for any minor offense. This law is pretty ridiculous.


Dagnabbit, with every passing day I get to like Missouri a little bit more than my old home state.

 

[Farm Boy]

Felonious littering baby. Complete with the scarlet F to handicap your ability to earn a decent wage for the rest of your life. "Good on them" indeed! Jaywalking should be next. Thrice a jaywalker, year in jail and 40 at McDonalds. Springfield is a blemish upon the face of the earth.

 

[bhsup]

I'm probably not being fair, but it just enrages me when I see my fellow smokers flicking their butts out the window. There is absolutely no excuse for it and it just honks me off to no end, so I'm not exactly looking at this objectively.

 

[Cutlass]

There's the trick: How do you stop that behavior without harsh laws? Smokers as a rule are outstandingly inconsiderate of other people. Throwing their butts wherever they happen to be done with them is just one aspect of that.

 

[Farm Boy]

Indeed. I have a habit of killing myself almost entirely because it allows me to vent my inner douche at all those annoying other people in society. Large fines that are actually enforced must be inadequate for controlling my ilk who only hit a garbage receptacle when one is placed directly in front our beady little eyes. Spare the rod, all that, you know.

 

[Synobun]

Does anyone here have any experience with teaching in a foreign country?

 

[Cutlass]

I know that people who formerly posted in OT did. Though I can't recall if it applies to any of the current crowd.

 

[Mouthwash]

I watched the first season, then read all the books, then watched the other seasons. I think that is a pretty good way to do it.

I don't think that the first season ruined the first book at all, but I do think that as the story gets more and more complicated that it is much better to read about it first.

The most recent episodes cram hundreds of pages of material into a single hour, and so have to leave off some important things. In the first season they were able to cover the main points much better, while still finding time to add gratuitous nude scenes that are not in the books.

I tried the first book. Unreadable, monotonous, badly written, and boring. So I guess only the show is left.

 

[Borachio]

Come on. It's not that badly written. True, it certainly isn't grand literature. But even that can be over-rated often enough, imo.

I have read much, much, much, worse.

In the end, objective literary merits aside (if there are any such things), it's just a matter of personal taste. And the narrative either grabs you, and you "care" what happens, or it doesn't.

I generally use my hurl-the-book-across-the-room test: if I've spent 1 or 2 hours reading something, and I suddenly can't help hurling it across the room, it's a truly terrible book. I generally don't finish reading those.

Who was it said you can get something out of even the most atrocious book? Even if it's just an exemplar of how not to write.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I'm probably not being fair, but it just enrages me when I see my fellow smokers flicking their butts out the window. There is absolutely no excuse for it and it just honks me off to no end, so I'm not exactly looking at this objectively.

And I sympathize completely. But I feel the punishment should fit the crime and the new punishments are a smidge over the top.

There's the trick: How do you stop that behavior without harsh laws? Smokers as a rule are outstandingly inconsiderate of other people. Throwing their butts wherever they happen to be done with them is just one aspect of that.

Agreed in principle but this is overly harsh - especially the felony bit. It's ridiculous and obscene in my opinion. If it were a couple hundred dollar fine, I would totally support it. But $1500 per offense plus the possibility of a felony conviction? Crickey!

 

[Farm Boy]

Law and Order finds interesting allies when it threatens to smear up the lives of people who you find to be inconsiderate or annoying.

More likely this is going to get unevenly and haphazardly enforced, since I'm not sure there are enough cops that are big enough arsewads to not gatekeep the hell out of this, unless they have a personal vendetta. So I'm guessing this is one more petty thing to breed contempt for the law and randomly smash mostly blacks and Hispanics with. Yay, go Illinois. Go people who support this law in Illinois.

 

[Cutlass]

And liberty finds interesting allies in people who just can't be bothered with the inconvenience of not harming other people.

 

[Farm Boy]

And liberty finds interesting allies in people who just can't be bothered with the inconvenience of not harming other people.

I don't think you'll find me grousing about actually enforcing fines for littering. I'm just absolutely stunned at even backdoor support for making this a felony.

 

[Joecoolyo]

I tried the first book. Unreadable, monotonous, badly written, and boring. So I guess only the show is left.

You obviously have poor taste in books then.

Very well.

 

[bhsup]

How often do you guys suppose oral herpes is spread among Catholics due to the whole "kiss the priest's ring" thing?

 

[The_J]

That's really still done?

Probably not that often, since most people already have it at the time point they do it the first time (prevalence for oral herpes is 95% or so, and you most likely get it from your parents when you're a kid, or latest when you begin with kissing).

 

[Mouthwash]

Did anyone else find school in its entirety traumatic and of zero use whatsoever? Or is it just me?

 

[timtofly]

High school was fun. College not so much.

 

[madviking]

Did anyone else find school in its entirety traumatic and of zero use whatsoever? Or is it just me?

Link to video.