For me, not at all. Pullman is really a kind of agnostic. For many of us, “God” is much larger than Church (Magesterium), and much larger than any theology.

With respect to the the characters’ response to the absence of Billy’s daemon, he’s supposed to be pathetically clutching a dried fish from the shack they find him in.

Monarchs are not “coronated”, they are crowned at a coronation.

“Her and Jay”? “Him and Jay”? Good grief, you can use English much better than that!

Yes, I know it’s a great bowl of saccharine, but when my cat was 19 and dying, watching the video (tape!) permitted me to sob without shame.

Meryl Streep, I can understand... She could probably do it, too.

a) Paid his fine as if he were a regular member of that world?

I wouldn’t call that “rushed” to the hospital. He’s walking under his own power. Let’s imagine something extremely mundane: a colonoscopy, typically done at a different time than a general physical. Okay, let’s not imagine it — I’m just throwing that out there.

People who are still living in the Fifties. Make that the Thirties.

I watched the investiture on TV back in the Sixties. Those hats!

It was fine for me while I watched the final season of Game of Thrones because I had never seen any of the previous seasons and therefore any close analysis of characters’ history with one another would have been lost on me.

To be fair, in the book the reveal of Lyra’s parents occurs during the gyptians’ big meeting, which is quite early in the story anyway. I am re-reading the book along with the series, so since I’m trying not to get too far ahead it’s slow going. It turns out it was 17 years ago that I read the books -- no wonder I…

I have not yet seen any of “The Crown”, but I do remember the Aberfan tragedy. It was truly unspeakable, and received a lot of press in the States.

A winter thunderstorm is rare but not unheard of. Ever see the guy on the Weather Channel freaking out over thundersnow?

When Vera laid the knife on the mantel in Act One I immediately thought of Chekov’s gun: bound to be used by the end of the play.

Also in New York State, I ceremonially wait until November 7th, or maybe the 10th, to get out my parka and my overcoat. April 7th, they get laundered or cleaned and go to the back of the closet. Sometimes I put a 5-dollar bill in a pocket of the parka and then have the delight of finding it the next November.

That is obviously a very rough estimate. How big is the type? Are there illustrations taking up space on the pages? What proportion of the page is footnotes? Is it a gripping thriller (fiction or non), or a scholarly tome? Are the pages covered in conversation rather than prose?

Surely he’s too old to be under the thumb of his father... Oh wait.

Yikes! What are they circling? I hope it isn’t someone’s cat.

Daemons are of the opposite sex, except for the rare times when they are of the same sex. I got the impression from the book that in this instance it suggests that the person is gay. I suspect that the ultimate form of the daemon reflects the true inner character of the human.