Remove the historic paintings during renovation, at least. Surely it would be possible to rig up some sort of sprinkler system as well. Firefighter access to the roof may be difficult once the fire is blazing, but maybe some mitigation systems could be installed before the blowtorches and welders come out.

Anne Rice did it waaaaay before Twilight was the wet dream in the author’s head. Even Dracula had crazy bitches in it. Sexual taboos are more freely explored in fiction, and the supernatural turns fiction up to 11.

Look up the CCPgrey video about who holds the keys to the kingdom. Napoleon wasn’t necessarily being dismissive when he called England a nation of merchants. They were very good at organizing power structures in ways that benefited them.

There, there, buddy. You don’t have to listen to all the hate. Just screen the hate from your life. Put a big ole metal grating in front of the flow of pejoratives and catch them before they hit your brain space.

Think of the children!

I’ll believe they’re thinking of the children when they use that phrase to make laws that agree with the environmental groups and governing bodies.

Interestingly, it was an accidental feature. The original patent application makes no mention of it, but 9 years later they added language about it camming out to the second patent application. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cam_out

I remember melting plastic pens onto the nintendo screw heads in order to get them out. Fun times.

I use the one in the pic, and I have to say it is pretty damn good at predicting rain.

I have a friend who has, give or take a couple, wrecked vehicles more than 20 times. Most were minor, barely involving damage to the vehicle he was driving or the vehicle/object he hit, but a couple were catastrophic. I think the majority were because he has roadway hypnosis/narcolepsy. I’ve had him fall asleep mid sentence talking to me when he was a passenger. A perfect candidate to have that license taken, right? The two ways I know of to take a license involve driving while intoxicated or a doctor personally notifying the licensing agency about a person’s inability to drive. Believe it or not, most doctors have a vested interest (because they want clients) in not personally notifying the agency. However, there is no set path to revoke a license for simply being a bad driver.

Iain M Banks was making transgender the norm before some current republican politicians were born. I can’t help but think that some of my ease with accepting them came from his amazing writing about a culture that could be anything they want, from child to adult, male to female, furry to electrons whizzing in hyperspace.

He was beautiful in his descriptions of food. I saved some of the pictures that came out of his recipe book.

Jesus, that dude shaped a lot of peoples worlds. I honestly don’t know if I was scared of the drain at the bottom of the public pool because of him, because I know that I didn’t read his short story until I was in college, but I wonder if it had already started spreading around in the secret and sly ways of the school hallways, before text messages were ever imagined.

I remember watching that movie on the Sunday-nothing-on channel that would showcase all the older but really good in their day movies. They would play it about once a month or so. I think it’s where I got my taste for certain types of D&D campaigns.

All I can think is that she has a completely different personality as a therapist.

I am sorry you’re having to experience this. It is a horrifying behavior that is very, very common among people with different social groups, and especially professions that ‘serve’ or help people. Doctors, EMTs, nurses, therapists, even cops or firefighters… I’ve seen it in all of them. They are exceptionally kind and caring until they clock out, and then are vehemently demanding of perfection, calculating in their coldness and disdain, and nearly psychopathic about other things that they find irritating in those they help while on the job. They completely suppress or sidestep their feelings about the issues while on the job, and let it all out on the people who are close, like family.

I know you’re having advice chucked at you from all directions, and in the last big post you said you had tired of that, so ignore everything after this if so and I’ll put it in spoilers.

I still do. If it works, it works. Until my video card self-immolates, I’ll keep using it. Damn these modern infants and their cable endings! shakes fist at sky

>.>

Yeah, chimneys are for rich folks with brick houses.

My favoured form is a moderately athletic slightly be-tummied greying spinster.

That sounds like it might drive me obsessively insane, btw.

Hopefully it’s all in my head. We’ll see if I ever experience the personal touch of a noodly appendage.

It’s the exact same phenomenon that several other fandoms or belief groups have gone through. First, start a satirical society and laugh about the foolishness with boon companions. Enjoy the companionship. Second, expand so that the society doesn’t die when you leave college or the location. Begin recruiting folks and telling them about your society. Third, watch as people join and some don’t realize it’s satirical. Disbelief dawns on the originals. Fourth, the true believers take over as the people in on the joke slowly leave due to all sorts of reasons, including no longer finding the society funny because of the true believers.

I watched it happen with bronies (not the furry sexual folks, 4chan already had those, but just people who were really, really into the show) on 4chan, a ‘drinking’ club at my college that was a joke because they only drank water at the meetings (at first, anyway), and a local activity (can’t name it because it’s specific and would give it away) club that was truly supposed to be just a social gathering but is now populated by a gaggle of 70 year old women fervently taking part.

One thing to point out is that Columbus wasn’t challenging established thinking about the earth’s shape, but rather its size. The educated populace at the time was on the ball with the earth being a sphere.