Sounds like, then, that they keep Julia in the story then rather than making her disappear and then getting most of her story in a flashback, which makes sense.

I can’t tell if I’d go for this or not. I like the books—but then I find it funny that Quentin’s such a self-important prat. However, I *HATE* that music. Ugh—it’s migraine music. I just hope that the music has nothing to do with the show. Also, would have liked a peak at a couple of the magical realms—the look of…

Yeah, but I’m assuming that’s what’s-her-name the love-interest in the first book. Easier to suspend someone with wire than do some other stuff. Or maybe it’s Julia, who disappears for a large chunk of Book One.

Depends—if it’s from the books, then it won’t be plot-device magic, since the books are, in part, a critique of magic in other books and a what-would-really-happen.

Almonds don’t kill bees. They’re actually part of the bee ecosystem. Almonds don’t suck the water out of the Pacific Southwest—most almonds are grown to the north of that. You can take a look at Las Vegas, Arizona, Los Angeles and SoCal crops for that issue.

I can’t tell you what a relief it is to see someone who actually knows something. Everyone’s become a California water-use expert, but no one seems to know anything.

Not much. Silicon Valley and the Bay Area aren’t the huge water hogs—mostly because it’s not that hot here and land is expensive—so people don’t have huge lawns and swimming pools for the most part. Lawns account for half of all residential usage—it’s ridiculous that they’re standard out here, they really shouldn’t be.

Which isn’t much more than any other nut. Almonds don’t take extreme amounts of water, there are just a lot of almonds in California. Almond trees, meanwhile, help with global warming (cutting carbon-dioxide levels), land erosion and desertification.

No. Almonds don’t take a huge amount to grow compared to other crops. There are just a lot of almonds. Main thing is that you have to water to keep the trees alive whereas with annual crops you can just let the ground lay fallow.

But almonds actually make sense—trees are good for global warming and curbing…

I feel you—I’m in the SF Bay Area—it’s just really, really depressing to lose the places that give your city or town its character.

Brava! “Bye, Bye Birdie!” Of course. Of course.

Hey, why does Silicon Valley get the extra tax? We’re not the water hogs. We’re not even the energy hogs. San Francisco has low water usage compared to the rest of the state—even the South Bay is way better about water use than the hotter parts of the state. Our energy use is lower than average for the same…

Hmmm, I don’t see that any Russians or Eastern Europeans were doing a number on Africa. And while Americans have their own grisly history with slavery, they actually weren’t colonizing Africa—Liberia, one of two places maintaining independence, was founded by former American slaves—so the U.S. could have gotten a hook…

You don’t have to be petite. It’s a particular body type—relatively broad shoulders and hips and then a long-enough torso so that the waist comes in. You do have to be thin—but I was 5’8” with a 23-inch waist as a teenager. If anything, Kim K. is too petite to have a naturally tiny waist—not enough room between the…

Yep. I was fine with the religion, but not the whole let’s-blow-up-all-our-technology-and-regress or the disappearance of Kara, just because, or the tens of thousands of years later God plays with playthings. It’s just kind of a pointless mess on both the micro and macro level.

Oh, well done.

Yeah, but I think we can assume that whatever Cersei thinks is wrong. She thinks it’s Tyrion, ergo it’s not Tyrion. :)

Seriously, are you going to do that? You don’t have some grass to kill instead? We have to cut 25 percent, but the dishwasher just doesn’t use that much. Half of residential usage goes to lawns—so it’s all about killing the grass—something my gardening-fanatic spouse is way too reluctant to do.

I thought of Diana Wynne Jones immediately after I wrote my answer—specifically The Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin.

Is anyone like Terry Pratchett besides Terry Pratchett? The only other author I’d say is comparably zany is Douglas Adams with the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but I’m guessing you’ve read that.

Not the same, but pretty amusing—Connie Willis’ *To Say Nothing of the Dog*—time travel to Victorian England—with ugly…