Goddamn. I don’t have anything useful to add, but thank you so much for this. You’ve managed to articulate so much of what I’ve been feeling, but not able to put into words or thoughts. ::goes to curl up in corner for a long time::

(HA, starred for being the only person outside of my immediate family I’ve heard say that.)

Yep - I was cringing when I saw Margaery trapped in the death-sept, totally thinking that Cersei went a wee bit overboard with that slaughter and baby Tommen was gonna off himself outta grief-guilt. If she’d saved wifey, too, there might’ve been hope (and he might’ve gotten laid again, which can’t have been helping…

I am a lifelong disliker of bearded men (not to mention redheaded ones), but that second picture... I don’t even know who I am anymore.
Why is he so hot? Witch!!!

(Right? I was so expecting to be all, ugh.)

Agreed - but there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it. (I wrote an overlong thing about exactly your point, below.)

this

The letter may raise interesting questions - but this is the *wrong* context in which to raise them, considering how distant any of those things are from the case being discussed. It’s like yelling ALL THINGS MATTER! to obscure her friend’s rapiness. Time and a place.

It’s a mistake that’s a *felony,* committed by an adult, with lasting conseqences to another human being. That warrants more than a stern talking-to at home (which, from the sound of it, he never even got).

Because: penis. Otherwise, what even matters?

As someone with a monster sibling and a sympathetic mother [literally the only person on earth who has any for him], I totally get that - but it’s the *way* the father defended him that was so horrific. He led by talking about the terrible impact this has had on his formerly joyful son’s enjoyment of snacks, ffs, and…

(Have been fighting the urge to mention how big and regionally diverse the States are, so thank you! I grew up all over the South, Southwest, and the West, and I find New England more alien, hostile, and confusing than most other countries I’ve traveled/lived in!)

Try spend a few years in the Netherlands, and the U.S. will suddenly seem like a hippy commune!

Yep. See above. Still doesn’t make it cool to wear those t-shirts right after he died, as if they’re a show of respect.

wow. so hope you’re trying to be funny.

And still limited respect, even then; I’m guessing a significant percentage of his fans would have balked at the ‘dating my daughter’ hypothetical.

(I was obv. being sarcastic, but rereading that, it kind of does transcend race - just not remotely in the way they mean.)

Oh, I don’t know. I mean, if you didn’t know the speech below was from a black man refusing to fight in Vietnam, there’re no clues in it about his color or feelings about race, so, you know, those people totally have a point!

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs…

#1 Fuck them, that was *not* his name. If they knew the first thing about his history, they’d know it was not “cool” to refer to him like that after his death, just disrespectful.

#2 That said, the name “Cassius Clay” is the first thing I think of when someone talks about how Ali’s awesomeness somehow made him a…

I hate to take away from the magic of that story, but one of the reasons I drink Diet Coke is because I’m super clumsy, and have to assume anything liquid I have will end up on clothing, furniture, or electronics. Diet coke has no sugar and no lasting coloring (it’s like carbonated formaldehyde with aspartame and rat…