Completely Inconsequential Hot-Takes

[Iruka]

Pft. The French call potatoes "apple of the earth". I vote we don't listen to them on wordage.

So do the Germans. Except when they call them "pear of the earth". Or just "truffle".

[Keltest]

Europe in general has a long and storied history of inexplicably comparing potatoes to apples for no good reason.

[Fyraltari]

Europe in general has a long and storied history of inexplicably comparing potatoes to apples for no good reason.

It's pretty easily explicable. Pomum is latin for "fruit", but the meaning drifted towards "apple" over the centuries. Pomme de terre doesn't mean "apple of the earth" it means "earth-fruit".

[Hagashager]

Pft. The French call potatoes "apple of the earth". I vote we don't listen to them on wordage.

100% behind this. I will take any opportunity to disenfranchise the French.

[Peelee]

100% behind this. I will take any opportunity to disenfranchise the French.

My jokes come from a place of love. I rather like the French.

[Fyraltari]

My jokes come from a place of love. I rather like the French.

It's the European in you speaking.

[Peelee]

It's the European in you speaking.

Actually it's very much the American, but that's probably the farthest I can take it on here.

[Khedrac]

It's the European in you speaking.

Please not all dragons eat people (thinking it better to assume Pelee is a dragon from his avatar rather than assume you are suggesting he's a cannibal).

[Fyraltari]

Please not all dragons eat people (thinking it better to assume Pelee is a dragon from his avatar rather than assume you are suggesting he's a cannibal).

How did anthropophagy ccome into play in this conversation?

[Rater202]

How did anthropophagy ccome into play in this conversation?

Were I to hazard a guess? Taking the "in you" in the phrase "it's the European in you speaking" to mean that there is physically a person from Europe inside Peelee's body.

[VoxRationis]

I actually work at BMW and we take turns attempting to read the various German words, but we never seem to sound angry enough. So this comment was hilarious to me.

Well, the funny thing is that the "angry" guttural R is common to both languages (if not universally due to different regional dialects), on account of the French being Germans with a fondness for Latin culture but no proficiency in the Latin tongue.

On an unrelated note, one of my perennial petty complaints is that the heat dial on toasters go far too high. What situation have we ever found ourselves in that requires the maximum setting? Even frozen bread becomes overcooked if set so high.

[Rynjin]

On an unrelated note, one of my perennial petty complaints is that the heat dial on toasters go far too high. What situation have we ever found ourselves in that requires the maximum setting? Even frozen bread becomes overcooked if set so high.

Bagels, mostly.

[Velaryon]

I will go to my grave insisting that The Fellowship of the Ring would have been a better book without Tom Bombadil, and that the single greatest editorial decision Peter Jackson has ever made was not including Bombadil in the movies.

[Bohandas]

I don;t know about better or worse, more like not changed in any way. Bombadil was pretty inconsequential.

[Jophiel]

Modern fortune cookies suck. They used to have fun little divinations like "You will go on a trip soon" or "Romance lies in wait for you this weekend". Now it's all dumb little sayings like "Humility is a treasure" or "Cooperation makes the hardest task possible". Those aren't fortunes! Tell me to watch out for a stranger or that I'll soon see a secret revealed! I haven't seen a real fortune cookie in probably a decade or more.

[Vinyadan]

I think Bombadil was useful as an added layer between the English countryside of the Shire and the Nordic-tinged high fantasy of Middle-Earth. By the Hero's Journey instead he probably would be qualified as a mentor figure. Like e.g. Obi-Wan, he shows up to save the protagonists lives and hands them the swords, but he'll have a limited role in the later parts of the story (here the fact that Obi-Wan won't just stay dead makes the comparison more difficult). But, of course, Bree also is a layer, Frodo will get a new sword from Bilbo, and Aragorn and Gandalf also are guides and mentor (and Gandalf also dies and won't stay dead).

[Khedrac]

I think Bombadil was useful as an added layer between the English countryside of the Shire and the Nordic-tinged high fantasy of Middle-Earth. By the Hero's Journey instead he probably would be qualified as a mentor figure. Like e.g. Obi-Wan, he shows up to save the protagonists lives and hands them the swords, but he'll have a limited role in the later parts of the story (here the fact that Obi-Wan won't just stay dead makes the comparison more difficult). But, of course, Bree also is a layer, Frodo will get a new sword from Bilbo, and Aragorn and Gandalf also are guides and mentor (and Gandalf also dies and won't stay dead).

This bit is more important than I think most people recognise. Without the Numenorean blade Pippin's strike at the Witch-King would not have interrupted the Witch-King's actions and he (it) would have killed Eowyn and changed the force of the battle for Minas Tirith. I think the line is something like "no lesser blade could have disrupted the forces that bound the Witch-King's sinews to his will".

[sktarq]

I always figured Bombadil was kinda a marker for "There are more stories going on in this world than the Fellowship, the Rings etc" in the form a major distraction that was never seen again.

He was the Chekhov's gun that never fired, but life is like that.




Still glad he was dropped from the movie.

[Bohandas]

I think the mayor from Nightmare Before Christmas is a juggalo

Look at how his face is done up in this screenshot:

https://i.insider.com/5f807bbcea7482...00&format=jpeg

he's got the white facepaint and stuff

[Tyrant]

Modern fortune cookies suck. They used to have fun little divinations like "You will go on a trip soon" or "Romance lies in wait for you this weekend". Now it's all dumb little sayings like "Humility is a treasure" or "Cooperation makes the hardest task possible". Those aren't fortunes! Tell me to watch out for a stranger or that I'll soon see a secret revealed! I haven't seen a real fortune cookie in probably a decade or more.

The last one I got told me it was a good idea to invest in seafront property.

[The Hellbug]

The last one I got told me it was a good idea to invest in seafront property.

Oh boy, you're going to love this, then. I got one a few months back that said 'one day, you will hold a dollar for the last time' and my brain immediately went to 'oh cute, a reflection on mortality.' Then my friend opened one and it was also suspiciously currency-related. Checked the back and it turned out some cryptocurrency-related business had supplied the fortunes for the cookie as an ad.

[tomandtish]

Modern fortune cookies suck. They used to have fun little divinations like "You will go on a trip soon" or "Romance lies in wait for you this weekend". Now it's all dumb little sayings like "Humility is a treasure" or "Cooperation makes the hardest task possible". Those aren't fortunes! Tell me to watch out for a stranger or that I'll soon see a secret revealed! I haven't seen a real fortune cookie in probably a decade or more.

Remember that it is always best to add "in bed" to the end of any fortune.

Of course, we've started a version where we add "except in bed" to them.

Either way they become much more entertaining.

[Peelee]

Remember that it is always best to add "in bed" to the end of any fortune.

Of course, we've started a version where we add "except in bed" to them.

Either way they become much more entertaining.

I see you've managed to avoid finding the crypto fortune cookies. That tactic does not work at all with those.

[Vinyadan]

I really like this one. "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king... in bed." "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall in bed." "It's fun to do the impossible in bed."

EDIT: "You forget your worth. Don't run from who you are in bed."

"Once you realise your worth, you tolerate less and require more in bed."

[Stonehead]

I always figured Bombadil was kinda a marker for "There are more stories going on in this world than the Fellowship, the Rings etc" in the form a major distraction that was never seen again.

He was the Chekhov's gun that never fired, but life is like that.




Still glad he was dropped from the movie.

Strictly speaking, Tom Bombadil was a holdover from before The Lord of the Rings was a novel, when it was some stories Tolkien would tell to his children. If I remember correctly, one of them had a doll named Tom Bombadill, which Tolkien wrote a short poem about. He referenced the character in his stories, and kept him in when he eventually wrote them down. At the time though, he didn't have the details or the tone of the series fully planned out yet, and he kept Tom in when the first book was published.

People have legitimately written thesis papers about Tom Bombadil, but why he was kept in is still speculation.

I do agree the movies are better without him.

[Vinyadan]

Strictly speaking, Tom Bombadil was a holdover from before The Lord of the Rings was a novel, when it was some stories Tolkien would tell to his children. If I remember correctly, one of them had a doll named Tom Bombadill, which Tolkien wrote a short poem about. He referenced the character in his stories, and kept him in when he eventually wrote them down. At the time though, he didn't have the details or the tone of the series fully planned out yet, and he kept Tom in when the first book was published.

People have legitimately written thesis papers about Tom Bombadil, but why he was kept in is still speculation.

I do agree the movies are better without him.

The Lord of the Rings isn't a series, it's a single novel published in three volumes, but made of six books. When the Fellowship was published, the rest was already done and ready; breaking up LotR in three volumes was just a decision his publisher made for economic reasons, and I think it still has a negative effect on the perception of the novel (the six-book structure feels much more balanced and respectful of the connections between parts of the novel).

It's true however that the poem "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" is from 1934, so before The Hobbit was published, and twenty years before the Lord of the Rings came out. A letter from 1937 where Tolkien proposes a sequel to The Hobbit has Tom Bombadil as an option: "Do you think Tom Bombadil, the spirit of the (vanishing) Oxford and Berkshire countryside, could be made into the hero of a story? Or is he, as I suspect, fully enshrined in the enclosed verses? Still I could enlarge the portrait."

Personally, I have a suspicion, and that's that Tom and Willow Man are what a protective or evil entity can look like in the Shire. The Elves, the Nazgul, those are a different deal, more Nordic, but Tom is the spirit of the Oxford countryside, and the Hobbits seem like they belong there.

[Dasick]

Spoiler: RANT - Avatar: The Last Airbender

Show

Everyone in the room is a firebender. Literally the only distinguishing weapon they have is fire. "The enemy's defenses were flammable" is not a realization you have when you cleverly calculate your advantages: it's a realization you have when all you have is a hammer and the room is full of actual freaking nails.

Zuko struggling with the answer makes sense because he's shy and hesitant and intimidated by 3 of the 4 ppl in the room. But Azula sniping it and acting like she'd aced a hard question really gets under my skin. It's like being quizzed "how did the Blue soldier kill the Green soldier?" and being smug and satisfied when you deduce "the Blue soldier had the only gun and cleverly calculated that the Green soldier was not immune to bullets."

Azula didn't get angry at Zuko for betraying the fire nation - she was mad cause he betrayed her. If Zuko said "Im going to fight father for the firelord throne" she probably would have gone along with it (she did hide it from their father that Zuko was visiting uncle, and she was watching out for him)

Ok, this one is spicy though. The Painted Lady wasn't filler. It's how sparky sparky boom man manages to figure out the Gaang is in the fire nation, because townsfolk couldn't keep their mouths shut

It is a romantic language! Romantic. Latin derivative. People love to say it's kissy kissy romantic but it's Latin romantic.

The use of the word romance and romantic. Or rather, misuse. Well, kissy kissy romantic stuff is subset of romanticism, but no one understands why and its infuriating that english speakers don't understand that word when used properly. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH


The only thing worse than that is the term "romanticizing". The danger and discomfort is part of the romanticist appeal - the point is embracing it and finding beauty in it, not ignoring it.

[MetroAlien]

I was fine with midiclorians because I always thought midiclorians were an indicator of the force.
Kinda like a pH colour test.

[MetroAlien]

The Baby Corp. in Boss Baby is actually a seed colony from an extraterrestrial, spacefaring civilisation.

Humanity on earth is their slave-race that they use for terraforming.
Conflicts among humans arise partly because they are granted free will, but also because different lobbying groups want to pull the terraforming project in different directions
e.g. "this will be an agri-world!" - "No! We want a tropical tourist world!" etc...

[Dasick]

Compared to other hominids/apes humans are elves.

We're a lot more hairless than them, more frail, but we make up for it with our keen eyesight and natural affinity for bows and projectile weapons. Its kind of interesting how much throwing and catching things is inbuilt into our psyche/nervous system/whatever, because its so much fun to just toss a ball around or whatever its unreal. Its also unreal how quickly people who have 0 skill with a bow can pick it up and learn to be reasonably proficient with it (Lars Anderson remarks on it as well)

We also have an uncanny ability to charm other animals and we spend quite a bit of our time trying to teach other apes quirks of our language which they can barely comprehend. Most governments have some kind of a conservation program where we take care of nature and heal random animals. Actually I think quite a few people would take the time to heal a random wounded animal.

Our young take forever to reach maturity. We have extremely long gestation periods. We also have some pretty long lifespans.