Jamal

Absolutely. I hadn't expected that when I started it.

I confess I've never understood why long books should be off-putting. So it takes two or three times longer to read than most books. So what? It's way...

There's a lot of that comedy with the character Denisov in War and Peace, who can't pronounce his r's.

Cool.

Incidentally, because Russians usually turn an English "H" into a hard "G" sound, they say "gamburger", "Prince Gary", "Gary Potter", etc. It's hard t...

Yes.

:up: I caught it before the paywall kicked in. Anyway, sushi's video pretty much covers it, and even though it's from 2015 it's remarkable how much it...

Furiously.

Yes, in internal relations they use the term realism or political realism now for what I was referring to as realpolitik. I'm not sure there's much di...

Good video. This article in Foreign Policy from a few days ago makes the same points: Liberal Illusions Caused the Ukraine Crisis It seems the most re...

I can't find it in the change log. When did you post it? Was it a discussion thread opening post, or a post in someone else's discussion? If the latte...

:up:

I'm always totally willing to pretend to listen to the masses.

Sorry Tiff, I don't get it. Sponsoring people? Betting? Well unless someone can make a case for a subscriber-only area, I don't think it'll happen.

This isn't helping your case. :grin: We already have social areas, and we're not desperate for a new fundraising solution, so I guess I don't really s...

Ah, green as in dollars? Finally it makes sense.

I guess you mean a subscriber-only section of the forum. Well, it's an idea. Not sure about it.

Thanks to our several generous members, subscriptions usually cover the cost all right, and when they don't it's like you say: I channel my porn funds...

Thanks, possibly an inaccurate usage but the main thing is I used it.

Sceptical.

Raven distribution: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/CorvusCoraxIUCN.svg/1280px-CorvusCoraxIUCN.svg.png

Most of the videos and recordings I've found are of perching ravens, but in my experience you hear them more often when they're flying overhead, usual...

Pretty much the same in Europe. Must have been at the Tower of London, because ravens in Europe are usually extremely wary of humans.

A handy guide for Americans, including those in the Bay Area: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a6/bb/ab/a6bbab7bf2f6c39f733721771566cd81.jpg

Yes, one of my favourites too. I don't mind that he's different from Chandler's Marlowe.

In my experience, most people who address the big questions are bores. Much more interesting and original are those who take up a unique stance on "th...

I chuckled. I felt this.

I had the idea for the ending but just made up the rest as I went along. Apparently Beckett's Molloy left an impression. :lol:

Seven days ago, it must have been. I had been to church earlier the same day, and I've been to church today. That was today, wasn't it? Whenever it wa...

Borsch (or Borscht as you might know it as) is better than expected though, I have to admit.

I was born that way, so don't even try.

Yes, the magical broth. And I'm not even a soup guy.

I hadn't had Vietnamese soup till a couple of years ago. Mind blowing. Or ... mouth blowing? :chin:

I read and enjoyed Budrys's Who? after being haunted since childhood by the memory of the film adaptation starring Elliot Gould.

:gasp:

Yeah it's the chimpanzees all over again.

:lol: Not exactly what I had in mind.

I've crashed hard. However, I have leftover cha gio for breakfast so it's not all bad.

Children's book: Raymond the Sad Hamster

You should enter the web address of the image, not the page. In Chrome you can right-click on the image, and "Copy image address".

:blush:

Yeh, the word till pre-dates until. It's not an abbreviation. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/%27til

*till

Problem solved. Thanks to everyone for their input.

Yes, but is that always relevant? The problem cropped up for me when we were discussing "wally", and then again when I was going on about fanny. With ...

Incidentally, I do think it's fair to want a collective term, because of how much we have in common.

Yep, that's why I was looking for a collective term: "Britain and Ireland" doesn't work in the same way. So I'll stick with "the North Atlantic Anglo-...

The stupidity is not just in this first very silly response of yours ("Britain and Northern Ireland" obviously doesn't refer to the group of islands I...

The forum is suffering one of its periodic attacks of stupid. Things should be back to normal tomorrow.

You can upload images if you become a subscriber. Otherwise, we have nothing against someone posting images of their paintings to illustrate points th...