Friday Ephemeraren’t
Because I’ve been assured that making your own is always more satisfying. I’ll set the ball rolling with, via Damian, some scenes of human cunning; a search tool for film stills; life skills for ladies; a brief history of ketchup; a museum of antiquated electronic games; and, via Elephants Gerald, the thrill of Lego gear ratios.
Oh, and this, it seems, is a thing that exists.
Oh, that has got to be a 4chan troll job.
“Never attrribute to 4chan that which can be attributed to stupidity”
Benjamin Franklin
“Never attrribute to 4chan that which can be attributed to stupidity”
And the supply of stupidity is infinite. I once knew a leftist who told me in all sincerity that there was no difference in the crime rate between the black slum neighborhood where he lived and the richest whitest suburb in the area.
Thank you, BLM: Walgreens shutters 10 stores in San Francisco as residents point to rampant shoplifting
Thank you, BLM:
TBF, it is not just BLM, but also idiots like “Anti”fa, and the whole California kakistoctracy at every level that refuse to police or prosecute effectively.
also idiots like “Anti”fa, and the whole California kakistoctracy
I agree emphatically. Liberals tell me that I must not smear all liberals because a few support BLM and Antifa, but where is this mythical moderate liberal majority which opposes them? Crickets continue to chirp.
Happy 85th birthday to the Supermarine Spitfire.
Walgreens shutters 10 stores in San Francisco as residents point to rampant shoplifting
Somewhat related.
See also.
Our Harvard-educated betters may have some thoughts.
And Vice’s Rachel Miller too.
Somehow I’m reminded of The Man Who Was Thursday.
Like the pantheist’s boots!
Happy 85th birthday to the Supermarine Spitfire.
I live 25 minutes fromt the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. They have a Supermarine Spitfire on static display. Beautiful aircraft. The pride of the collection though is the Lancaster bomber. It’s one of only 2 flight worthy models left in the world. It makes regular flights over my house along with a Mitchell B-25 bomber.
also idiots like “Anti”fa, and the whole California kakistoctracy
Guess who was DA in San Francisco before coming to Los Angeles?
Also, people being shot while mugged in Los Angeles (e.g. Lady Gaga’s dog walker) is significantly up and officials are “confused”.
Pay no heed that DA George Gascon mandated that there were to be no more enhancements added to charges anymore – like “use of gun during commission of a crime”.
Beautiful aircraft.
Reminding me I really should go have a look at the Valkyrie in Dayton someday.
.. have a look at the Valkyrie in Dayton someday.
My son and I did a baseball trip a couple years back Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Triple A Columbus. My biggest regret is not making the side trip to Dayton to the National Museum of the US Air Force.
Guess who was DA in San Francisco before coming to Los Angeles?
I’ll bet that DA George Gascon has a permanent security detail…because his life and property are infinitely more valuable than ours. And liberals continue to vote for scum like him. (shakes head)
Supermarine Spitfire
Yes but P-51D Mustang.
…The Man Who Was Thursday…
Chesterton wrote of a psychoanalyst who ‘made my hair stand on end by saying that he had found my very juvenile story useful as a corrective among his morbid patients; especially the process by which each of the diabolical anarchs turns out to be a good citizen in disguise. “I know a number of men who nearly went mad,” he said quite gravely, “but were saved because they had really understood The Man Who Was Thursday.” ‘
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday#Quotes_about_The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday
‘We found no evidence in these sources that physicians ever used electromechanical vibrators to induce orgasms in female patients as a medical treatment.’
Tangentially: “…I found that the other medium kept a special phallic device, or dildo, by which she offered unique spirit consolation to that woman and several other sitters like her who were willing to pay special prices for the special services they demanded. Some of the mediums I knew were virtually psychic prostitutes. In the séance room Brenda Himmel took on all comers. For a price. One whole family of second-generation mediums, male and female, were invited to leave Camp Chesterfield because their sexual escapades in the séance room were too open and notorious.”
From The Psychic Mafia by M. Lamar Keene, as told to Allen Spraggett (that chapter available at https://rayb.wordpress.com/the-psychic-mafia/the-psychic-mafia-part-5/ PDF of entire book available free on various sites). It’s an exposé of the frauds perpetrated by him and other mediums and spiritualists. The book forced Keene to change his name and move to another city. But even there someone tried to kill him.
That.
Apparently, you can imprison and torture an entire town, including children, for weeks, and not be expected to face any legal or moral consequences. You just fly away to be sad. It’s the Marvel way, apparently.
That does seem to be how our Progressive Betters think and act, so perhaps it is no surprise that this would manifest in the Marvel universe where the writers all seem to think of themselves as terribly Progressive. But to be carefully fair, I should ask if there has been any criticism of this from “progressive” quarters. (Bearing in mind that I know nothing about Wanda Vision, having avoided all Marvel movies and TV shows for years.)
perhaps it is no surprise that this would manifest in the Marvel universe where the writers all seem to think of themselves as terribly Progressive
Given that we’re apparently supposed to think of WandaVision as a study of grief and consequences, it does seem awfully glib and dissonant. Hundreds of innocent people have been imprisoned and traumatised – literally tortured and enslaved – by the main character, for whom we’re supposed to feel sympathy. Yet she faces no consequences for that. She literally just flies away to be sad.
I know, maybe we shouldn’t expect too much from a show about comic-book superheroes. But for a show about comic-book superheroes, there ain’t much in the way of heroism.
I know, maybe we shouldn’t expect too much from a show about comic-book superheroes. But for a show about comic-book superheroes, there ain’t much in the way of heroism.
On the other hand, today’s comic books and shows are marketed as super-woke, sensitive to every moral nuance and militantly armed against injustice, so this…blindness…strikes me as very telling.
this…blindness…strikes me as very telling.
The traditional, recurring Marvel comic-book story is, or was, something like this. Someone, often a self-satisfied arsehole, experiences some great loss or humbling, some tragedy or trauma, learns a harsh lesson, often in humility, and goes on to be a better person, albeit one with outlandish talents and an unconventional wardrobe. (See, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Dr Strange, etc.) The villains may experience mishaps of their own, of course, but they by and large choose to take it out on the world. That’s the basic moral difference.
Presumably, Wanda is being set up to be a villain for future appearances. But it’s still a little odd to be expected to sympathise with her, at length, week after week, while simultaneously seeing her fit of sadistic, super-powered self-indulgence, and then glimpsing the fallout from it, for the victims, and then seeing her get away with it with no expectation of comeuppance. There’s a dissonance.
Presumably, Wanda is being set up to be a villain for future appearances.
Sort of like Smallville? I saw a few bits and pieces of just a few early episodes, and got the impression that one intention was to sympathetically show Lex Luthor’s evolution into villain.
Sort of like Smallville?
Couldn’t say. Not my bag, really. It exceeded, by many orders of magnitude, my tolerance for pouty teen emo-drama. Also, from the little I saw of it, it was the gayest not-actually-gay show on television.
But for a show about comic-book superheroes, there ain’t much in the way of heroism.
Most of the people involved in fantasy entertainment today are morally deficient or outright evil. They simply have no moral concept beyond selfishness. Feige kept the MCU on an even keel for a long time, but I think he saw the writing on the wall and got out.
Presumably, Wanda is being set up to be a villain for future appearances
I think it unlikely. Although like Emma Frost she’s been both villain and not-villain throughout Marvel history, WandaVision makes it pretty clear they’re going for the “Muh Trauma excuses everything I do” trope.
In the Marvel comics’ House of M storyline, a trauma causes Wanda to remake the entire world into one where mutants are the dominant species and rule over humans. It’s eventually undone, mostly because comics always have to revert to the status quo and Marvel needed to cut down the number of mutants running around, but at least it’s explicitly shown that it was a bad thing.
one intention was to sympathetically show Lex Luthor’s evolution into villain
Yes, very much so. Early on it’s very clear that part of the reason that Lex gloms on to Clark is that he sees that Clark is a good person in a way that he himself is not, and he wants to be like that but really doesn’t know how. Lex is explicitly a foil for Clark, right down to both of them being very much shaped by their fathers.
the gayest not-actually-gay show on television
Well, you’re not wrong. The Atlanta gay SF club had weekly viewing parties.
The Atlanta gay SF club had weekly viewing parties.
Heh. This does not surprise me in the least. They certainly milked the connotations of people wanting to uncover Clark’s Big Secret. I recall one long shot slowly zooming in towards a partly open door and a sign announcing… Boys’ Locker Room, which actually made me laugh out loud. But from what I could make out at the time, at least 84% of the thing consisted of supposed ‘teenagers’ mooching about being inhibited and depressed.
Which, it has to be said, wears a little thin.
Couldn’t say. Not my bag, really. It exceeded, by many orders of magnitude, my tolerance for pouty teen emo-drama.
Indeed. The little that I saw led me to wonder what its fans saw in it. Too many 30- and 40-somethings with the emotional development of teens, I suppose.
Indeed. The little that I saw led me to wonder what its fans saw in it.
I’m afraid watching pouty teen angst, even when embellished with homoeroticism, is not my idea of a good time.
I’m afraid watching pouty teen angst, even when embellished with homoeroticism, is not my idea of a good time.
Someone once mentioned how common it is for teens to write dark, angst-y poetry, and I instantly felt a pang of sympathy for the high school English teachers who might have to read and grade vast amounts of it. (What are the respective alcohol abuse rates among English teachers and slush pile readers?)
I instantly felt a pang of sympathy for the high school English teachers who might have to read and grade vast amounts of it.
Reading teen poetry. Isn’t that one of the circles of Hell?
Reading teen poetry. Isn’t that one of the circles of Hell?
And what sins earn that punishment?
Reading teen poetry. Isn’t that one of the circles of Hell?
Or being a teen who is not into poetry and being forced to write it. And none of that smart-ass stuff or you get ZERO credit…Though for some reason I’m just now reminded of a pre-teen circle of hell where in a certain parochial school we were asked to relate our stories, and it turned out the more dramatic the better, about how we found Christ. Imagine my surprise at 13 to find that so many of my friends had been on the road to perdition before I ever met them.
And what sins earn that punishment?
Writing teen poetry where others will see it or hear it.
It’s a vicious circle, this circle of Hell.
The little that I saw led me to wonder what its fans saw in it
I watched eight seasons, mostly for the huge number of references to existing DC canon and inside jokes. Remember that Smallville predates the current glut of superhero media (arguably without Smallville priming the pump, you wouldn’t have that glut) and if you wanted any kind of live-action superhero themed entertainment, it was your only option. Also, I tend to like alternate-universe takes on things. It’s interesting watching them play around with the canon, and the more you know the canon the more subtleties you see.
at least 84% of the thing consisted of supposed ‘teenagers’ mooching about being inhibited and depressed
Smallville, was, essentially, Roswell “done right”. Mostly the same production crew, writers, etc.