In Mandarin the construct is 美國人 - literally "United States Person".

Lifetime research grant? I wouldn't watch it, but I'd be a contestant.

Zelda is a game where I don't really want them to do something totally new - no major game redesigns, no gritty reboots. I want something that's about 70% familiar Zelda - the outfit, bombs and a bow and arrow, the minimal "find the 7 widgets to save the world" plots, the thrill of finally getting the hookshot,…

Don't forget New York Fries - which makes an acceptable poutine.

You mean like Susan Aglukark?

Not just FORTRAN, but FORTRAN 77, in some cases.

I think it produced lovely pale skin with rosy cheeks, so they were pretty when they were dying, as long as you weren't there when they were (literally) coughing up a lung.

Just to emphasize - not being attracted to someone and feeling angry and suffocated by the way they treat you is a sign that you need to not be in this relationship at all - it's not a normal (or at least healthy) part of a serious relationship. Taken all together, dating someone twice your age who assumed that of…

I'd be curious to know what the terms on the contract with HBO are, regarding completion and production. I can't really see HBO stopping for a few years to wait for him to finish a book, or suddenly shifting to random prequels.

Well, she could be worrying that if she isn't married to a tall, handsome man with a successful career at at least $100,000 a year in salary by the time she's 30 she's a failure…

One for me was the work of David Weber.

I was very carefully taping episodes at that point - it was before the DVDs were coming out. There were 3-5 episodes per day (more on Sundays), and I'd check the TV listings and program the VCR for the ones I hadn't gotten yet.

I remember being in undergrad and having someone come in all excited - they found this website that would let you search for other websites! I think it was spider, which would put it about before Alta Vista.

I keep thinking I should mail a cheque to PBS, in thanks for those VHS tapes of Red Dwarf that I carefully recorded during their pledge drives, back in the mid 90s. I was too broke to contribute then, but back then it was the only way to get access to things like Red Dwarf and Black Adder.

For Trek, the adolescent sex thing was most cringeworthy when Enterprise came out. They were billing it as 'not your parents' Trek' - sexier, more edgy. And then they have the characters in their underwear rubbing gel on each other in a decontam room.

I think there's a certain amount of self-delusion that's required when pursuing careers like that. If you look at the facts, the chances that you will become famous/make a living from acting/play in the major leagues/get tenure at a research university are so dire that the logical thing to do is quit right now and do…

I love Bloom County, and have since I discovered it as a teen, but it's a strip that doesn't age as well as C&H. The latter is timeless, the former uses a lot of political/social humour that would be hard for a young person to appreciate.

I think the reason I dislike Amy in the later books is because the qualities she's prized for (and which give her a charmed life) are all surface (grace, beauty, elegance, tact, good fashion sense), while Jo, who is more substance than surface, gets the hardship and grief.

I was rereading the Little Women series not too long ago (a lovely rainy weekend with a cold choice), and for Jo, at least, I don't think she would have been nearly as happy with Laurie as with her Professor. They settle into a somewhat eccentric lifestyle that suits them both, doing something they love, where their…

I really hope someone got fired for that blunder.