The probability of Punch and Pooty
I think that Todd's scepticism about the likelihood of Punch surviving an apocalypse and performing such a central role in society really highlights the inadequacies of any speculative fiction. Punch and Judy is a dying art form now, and there is only one Professor still creating…

It reminded me somewhat of letters I have received from Scottish relatives of mine, written phonetically in dialect.

I enjoyed the comments, but I disagree about the origin of the word oansome. Handsome degenerates into 'ansome quite easily. The H is dropped, certainly, but this accentuates the A sound. As much as letters easily get dropped, W is not one of them, so winsome is also an unlikely origin. If a W changes it is more…

Swibble, the notion of the Devil as trickster is quite an old one, as the Christian devil can be seen as an adaptation of older trickster gods such as Loki. If you are American then maybe that is where the difference is. In the UK the Devil appears in pantomimes, and in Punch and Judy, and is often used as a figure…

Agree absolutely with the others. The pre-reboot episodes are variable in quality and there are far, far too many of them. The reboot was specifically designed to be accessible to people with no prior history of the show. After that it would be good to do some research as to the best of the previous incarnations, and…

So racism can only exist between peoplewith different skin colours? The Jews will be glad to know that!

I have a pair of crocs that I bought a few years ago and I wear them all the time now. It's not just because I think that they look good, or that they are amazingly comfortable, but mostly because so many fuckwits tell me how much they hate them. It makes me laugh. I wear them with a "Life is Good" t-shirt for added…

1973.

I thought it was KY: The Lubricated State?

It certainly written from the point of view of another era, and the concerns of the book reflect that. I think that anything that attempts to portray youth or visions of the future from an obviously older perspective can come across as corny so it does fit.

@Dumbledore Calrissian, you missed the most important question.

I think that Ben's capitulation on the recommendation letter was because alterna-Ben was different. He was prodded by Locke, then Alex gave him the route to some leverage, so this didn't come about by some Machiavellian scheme of Ben's. Most people would feel uncomfortable and scared about basing their career on a…

@Forget it Jake, it's Kate. Number 51 on the dial, as posted above by Do Not Touch WIlly.

I'm looking forward to the UK film version of Huckleberry Finn, where Huck is cast as a lovable chirpy cheeky cock-er-nee on a trip up the Thames. That'll serve the fuckers right. If they even notice.

Isis, that was brilliant.

Yeah, but paying attention to dialogue means that you don't get to rant about how bad the producers of Lost are. Because they clearly don't think these things through.

It wasn't that he focused on tragedy, it was that he definitively stated at the beginning of A People's History… that he would take sides against anyone in a power position, and always believe the alternative. It was shoddy, dishonest, and sensationalist. It really made me see a positive side to America because it…

Well I'm sure it's not a euphemism…
"Last week J-Woww …. was flooded by over 5,000 people"

Welsh men do NOT fuck goats.

Bill Bryson is talking out of his arse. The American version is 'trash talk', and while it is not as widespread, it does exist. My experience of it has been in manual labour work, but I have never come across it outside of that, so it is more limited and apparently class specific.