I’d check out an authentic ancient-Roman snack bar, but the first whiff of garum and I’d be running for the door. Fermented fish just don’t do it for me.

Not just Mary of Bethany, but she is often conflated with the repentant harlot, too. Plus she got confused with Mary of Egypt, (who *was* an ex-prostitute,) including the bizarre images of her wearing nothing but her own hair.

The Gospels were written by the Pauline branch of the faith, not the Petrine branch, aka the Jerusalem Church, which mostly vanished after the destruction of Judea in 73 CE. The two branches were very different; on at least one occasion Paul was summoned back to Jerusalem and forced to recant much of what he’d been…

No, that’s historically justifiable. Using a sword was a French style of execution— there’s no block, the victim kneels upright, the sword is swung horizontally— as opposed to the English axe, where the victim leans forward against the block and the axe descends vertically. Henry VIII imported a French executioner for…

I have one bookcase that’s just for autographed books. (It’s genuinely amazing how many of those turn up in thrift stores.) Those are alphabetized by author’s last name. The rest of my stuff is mostly by subject, and isn’t in any particular order within a category, although I do try to keep authors together.

Biers, or the Mended Drum? The Librarian tends to hang out at the latter, and I hear he’s a good conversationalist. Ook.

From the looks of the place, that’s what you’d be drinking, too. 

Seeing as how I’m female, plebeian, and poor, I’m pretty sure that the Drones wouldn’t let me in the door. Nor am I entirely sure that I’d fit in at a club where throwing soft-boiled eggs at the electric fan is, canonically, an accepted method of passing the time. :)

She could have said that she had figured out a way to give everyone in the country a job that paid a million a year for a three day workweek, that from now on rent would cost a nickel a month, and everyone would get a free car that ran on coffee grounds, and she still would have been crucified in the press. It didn’t…

There’s also the fact that the Gospels were written in a climate where it made *political sense* to be antisemitic. By the time they were written, Judea didn’t exist. The Jews were dispersed, their religion was damn near outlawed, and the name was nearly synonymous with ‘traitor.’ It was in no one’s best interest to…

That scene has never made sense. First of all, there was never any ‘Passover custom’ to pardon a prisoner. Historically, it just never happened. Second of all, if Pilate wanted to pardon two prisoners, or five, or fifty, he had the right to do it, on Passover or any other time he felt like it. Third of all, Pilate…

Given that the ‘Israeli Governing Body’ of the time was a Roman puppet government— I mean, even at the time this was openly understood— it’s still a bit unfair to blame the Jews. The Romans appointed puppet High Priests who did as they were told, the Herodians were essentially Roman, and Pontius Pilate was so brutal…

What the smeg was Amazon thinking, making deals with that piece of trash in the first place? Why is *anyone* still employing that sick creep?

To be fair, in some cases it does prevent cancer. This is because the measles mortality rate is comparatively high. Heaven help these kids, since apparently their parents don’t want to.

Yep. James Buchanan. Some historians think he might have been gay or ace, and some blame an unsuccessful love affair that allegedly scarred him for life, but he’s the only unmarried president as of yet.

I love this show, even while admitting that it isn’t entirely without flaws, so I was looking forward to seeing the live version. And didn’t actually care that it wasn’t live; it’s on a tv screen either way, so who cares.

He was right. The aired version is amazing; no question about it. Probably one of the best Trek episodes, full stop.

He was right. The aired version is amazing; no question about it. Probably one of the best Trek episodes, full stop.

Now, now. Geb is probably right. The rest of the world doesn’t need racist trash mucking the place up, and if they were to do the rest of us a favor by walling themselves in, perhaps we’d all be better off. I’m sure we can spare, say, a hundred square miles or so.

I’ve got an ereader, and it’s certainly convenient for travel or late night reading, no arguments there. But I do find that, while it’s perfectly fine for light reading, reference works need paper. Flipping back and forth between the text and the appendices is MUCH easier in a physical text. 

I really wish someone would have the conversation with Jace that I keep having in my head— namely, to ask him if he really is that stupid, or just a soulless hypocrite. A lawman turned terrorist, who even before his radicalization had no apparent problem with torture, Mengele-type human experimentation, open-ended…