I think The First One I Read By Him Is My Favorite is a common syndrome with Murakami. He's a good writer with neat ideas but unless you're really a die-hard fan his stuff can get repetitive. Although maybe that's true of most prolific writers.

And here I was thinking I wouldn't have to worry about my senators cause i'm in nys. Time to get out the stationary and write some strongly worded letters. *tries not to give into the crushing despair that strongly worded letters will do zero good but can't because part of soul that used to contain optimism is now…

(Obviously not upvoting the punched in the face part, but the rest)

That's awful.

Hehe… "Tex Avery out."

The important thing is that at least 1/2 of the Ninja Turtles are on the list.

Upvoted for "college sophomore." I use that term all the time in the same exact way. It captures a certain mentality perfectly. Like "you're so close there buddy, just take the 102-level course and get your perspective widened just a little further!"

I've only seen one season but it seems like the kind of show that would get it right.

I've said before, I've only ever seen one example of an accurate portrayal of Catholic mass on TV ever, and it was on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, of all things.

Along those lines, Jesus wept, etc. etc.

Interesting points. Various characters lob around the term "English magic" and for many (including Norrell) it seems to be in a patriotic, nation-state oriented sense. But as is revealed as the book unravels…
MINOR SPOILERS I CAN'T DO THE GRAY BAR THING
…we do find out that a lot of the Raven King's magic is rooted in…

The weird thing about Harry Potter is that, despite random extremist Christian fretting, its magic is very non-mystical, non-occult. It's like, random Latin and herbology and potions-as-chemistry arts-and-sciencey stuff.

You're lucky. In 1998 I was a high school girl in an all-girls' school and literally surrounded by the witchcraft trend. Which, in retrospect, I'm glad the people who were into it were doing their thing. But at the time I had a severe case of the eye-rolls about the matter.

Upvoted for Christianist instead of Christian. These people shouldn't get to co-opt the label for an entire umbrella of religious belief of which they are only (the worst) subset.

::falls to earth; is fine but plays dead so she doesn't have to confess she forgot the difference between a verse and a bridge::

I think the story is mostly about us making Harry-Potter-themed Bruce Springsteen puns in the comments section ;)

"One soft infested summer, me and Hagrid became friends, trying in vain to breathe the (green) fire we were travelin' in…"

Us second-verse-knowers have heard re: getting to Sesame Street that "it's a magic carpet ride."

" At least it makes the fate of poor Eddie—Adam Lambert—a little bit more palatable."

But did they ever establish who had which code name? I'm guessing Kristy is Holt, since Amy sees him as a strong leader type, Stacey is Boyle because of his sophisticated fashion sense, and Claudia is Jake because I can easily imagine that he has subpar spelling skills and candy hidden all over his room.