You are all making me glad that when I went to graduate school it was still relatively cheap. (In state, anyway). I looked at more recent tuition and I was like WTF. The only bright side is that PhD programs usually don't require tuition payments to the same degree. Still…

IIRC medical debts are treated differently from a legal perspective. But I don't know the details. Hospital collections can be crazy.

I wonder if I am the only one who felt that one of the most emotional scenes on the episode was with Sandor Clegane? When the Septon tells him the Gods aren't done with him yet? And when he says you can't cure violence by inflicting it on other people?

After watching this I got the message. You do NOT mess with Mrs. S.

If she was in character for Helena I'd be thinking, "we're sage, since even Southeast Asian drug lords are no match for Helena armed with a pencil, a penknife and a paper clip."

OK, so it's safe to say that all the sounds, like the squeaking shoes as he moves, are constructed from other sources, yes? (I looked at the guy's site, finally, and noticed that he collects sounds to do this with). I was just surprised that it seemed to catch his hands clapping and stuff like that.

I'm sure people have asked this before, but I am being a bit lazy.

I might be ascribing outsized importance to the issue of hereditary systems, but I think its so important because at every turn Martin reminds us that the hereditary ruler is usually just terrible, and further, that the concept is basically a lie - think of how Joffrey is the rightful
king because he's legally…

That bit about proper order is important, I think.

Even stories like that though have a certain arc that has (by now) become part of storytelling DNA, no? I remember reading Gawain and the Green Knight and recognizing many of the tropes that are common to high fantasy today. And (correct me if I am wrong) the Mabinogion(sp?) covers some of that too, even though some…

Ironically, the old timey lights are actually better (with some designs) because people wanted the light on the ground. Many of those old-fashioned gas lamps, for instance, have opaque tops.

Right, but I was thinking that an assignment like that can be fraught for students like that. (And even with that I think it's certainly possible for her to go to cousins? I don't know). And in a situation where some kids mightn't know their biological parents in a "traditional" way, I'd probably have tried something…

In a way that's really sad, Were you able to offer another assignment or something? Why would genetics HW involve knowing your parents necessarily? (I can think of a few things that might, but they aren't the kinds of assignments that are absolutely necessary to understand the concepts).

Speaking as one who know some of the folks involved— the issue isn't LED lights per se. Light isn't going to scatter to the upper atmosphere from streetlights much and the sky is blue because the sunlight scatters on the atmosphere. (That oxygen- and nitrogen rich air and all).

About the only thing that sounds realistic in this film is not talking to your high school best friend. The guy who was one of my best friends in high school I didn't really talk to again more than once or twice after graduation. Beyond that? Nothing, really, I only saw him at my 10th reunion. I didn't go to my 20th…

Canada's racial dynamic is a little different — but ask what happens on the reserves among First Nations people. The RCMP is a long way from Dudley Do Right.

I was in grade school when the busing conflicts happened and my town (Lynn, Mass.) actually opted out, for some reason I will never get they were able to do that. It was pretty crazy. People were threatening to set the damned buses on fire. Threatening children.

For a white family maybe. If it was a black family half the kids at the slumber party would be dead.

I'm describing plot points that were in the original X-Men run, as you mentioned judging works (and adaptations) through a current lens. Maybe I misunderstood you, but as I read it you're saying that stuff like racism and sexism (at least in current adaptations) should get a bit of a pass if something was created a…

Um, even in 1983 I think sex with underage people was kind'a not cool, and it was Jim Shooter, IIRC, who basically said that Claremont (who was still on the X-men then) had to find a way to write out the relationship with Colossus, who was supposed to be almost 20 when Kitty Pryde was 13-14.