The real Queen Liz? Oh, I think it's possible. After all, her early-life experiences were pretty traumatic—dad chopping off mom's head, dad chopping off head of beloved stepmother for infidelity, last favorite stepmother dying in childbirth. Last stepmom's hubby putting the moves on you when you're a young teen.

I'd…

Yep, I really think there's an over-reaction to the whole-kids-in-car thing. You shouldn't have to worry about losing custody of your child because you run into the store for 10 minutes while the kid's asleep in a car seat on a cloudy day.

Oh, a parent education course and some supervision could help. People make mistakes and at least this one doesn't involve guns.

It's not that these are good parents, it's more that the foster-care/adoption system leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm cool with it as long as Jamie Dornan has a career afterwards. I like looking at him and listening to that deep brogue. Not enough to go anywhere near 50 Shades of Crap, but enough so that he's around as eye candy elsewhere.

It is creepy and, honestly, the age thing itself doesn't concern me—the age combined with the weight thing is not so good. I just don't know many people that heavy who live into their 80s.

Yep—a measles outbreak at "The Happiest Place on Earth"—people actually *care* about Disneyland and being able to take their kids there. Somebody else's school—so what? But Disneyland is a whole different thing.

There's a difference though between a compulsive/addictive behavior and something that really is a matter of choice.

And you would be required to wear a safety belt and your kid would be required to be in a car seat. You would be breaking the law if you put anyone in the back and you would be required to carry insurance.

Yep. The polio vaccine was around by the time I came along, but my mother's cousin and one of my landlords in grad school had both been paralyzed in both legs by polio. It was the main reason that there were people in iron lungs. If you saw someone in a wheel chair or partially paralyzed, your first assumption was…

Actually, there have been a number of safety matters instituted in cars to reduce the number of fatal accidents—air bags, seat belt laws, carseats, laws that mandate children ride in the back seat. And, of course, I'm liable for any accidents I cause and am required to carry insurance.

And I am, of course, licensed…

Nope, sorry, your right to do whatever you like ends when your behavior endangers others.

Yes, To Say Nothing of the Dog is one of my bad-mood go-tos. The British could probably do a decent job of that one as a television serial. The books all take place in England anyway.

Yep, Martin loves an unreliable narrator. You pretty much always have to read between the lines. No one's omniscient and each narrator has his or her set of prejudices/limitations. I actually find Danaerys' one of the trickier ones to suss out because she's so isolated from the other characters for most of the…

Yep. I think Penny-haters are falling into Martin's trap here—we see Penny the way Tyrion sees Penny, with all his high-born arrogance and superior intellect. In a way, he treats her the way he's been treated—with a sort of contempt, though his own compassion kicks in because he's a kind person.

So, I'm thinking that the No One training sequence will be finished by the end of the coming season, which puts us firmly into WoW.

They're on their way to doing something by the end of Book V, but I assume since Arianne's been cut, they'll pick up some of her slack.

Seems to me like a lot of Book Five is cut—which makes sense, Books 4 and 5 suffer from middle-itis—Martin's trying to muddle through and get to a point where it all comes together and some of that is entertaining enough to read, but not really that necessary. We all know Tyrion is going to meet Dani—no reason for…

Oh, disagree. I prefer the books to the show. Too much torture-porn in the show, too many interesting women characters aren't making an appearance. Too much of the weird magic is being streamlined out of the way.

And good riddance to them.

Yeah, I've always had a fondness for Penny—her presence sort of forces Tyrion out of his lone-dwarf-self-pity and kind of man up in a way that doesn't allow him to mope—he's not attracted to Penny, so he can't fall in love the way he does, but he's also connected to her and feels responsible for her.