It seems like Perotta must have thought What if the Black Death had happened today? Since we could explain away a plague, he went with the mysterious rapture. But weird cults (including one where people wore white), false messiahs, people losing faith and gaining it, suicide, sexual mores become loose (which was a…

It's amazing. The View was conceived as informed, intelligent women of different generations discussing issues of the day. Poor Debbie wasn't smart enough and go the boot. Look at the show now.

Home Shopping Channels. I don't begrudge D-list celebrities shilling products to make a buck, but combine the faux sincerity, perkiness, manipulation (Your grandchildren will love you if you send them this! I know you can't wait for that thank you call!) and pressure that seems to directly target lonely and vulnerable…

I would add to the list the works of Sharon Kay Penman. Her Richard III apologist novel The Sunne In Splendor is a completely wonderful work of historical fiction that is too often lumped into historical romance (though it is romantic in places). Her works on the court of Henry II and his sons are pretty amazing as…

I gave up on the books because I felt like she was fan servicing all the people who wanted Claire and Jaimie all the time, but really and truly wanted to develop more characters and more heroes but never found any - with the possible exception of John - that matched the originals.

My expertise on Roman history is made up of two undergraduate courses, a couple visits to Italy (including Pompeii) and lots of pop history books. When the show was airing, I followed a blog by actual historians and they were mostly positive on the show, with an understanding that budget in particular, sometimes…

Rome is something of a proto-Game of Thrones, especially in that it had the whole multiple storyline thing going where some of the storylines were really engaging and others fell flat. But damn, it has its moments.

I'm really hoping Ron Moore and Starz come through with the Outlander adaptation. The early books are really fun without being patronizing or stupid, but I might even pick up a newer book in the meantime.

I recently had a student pitch an essay to me about how
her family opened their home to family of Nigerian refugees. I said to
her, "Look, what your family did was noble and really cool. I'm glad you
did it, and I'm glad you learned about the suffering in other parts of
the world. But if you write about it, how are…

Ellen Green has the best pipes ever. Amazing.

I was just coming here to suggest the Decemberists.

It was cryptic, but Arya was supposed to give that coin to someone from Braavos and then say those magic words if she ever wanted/needed the faceless assassins again. I'm thinking this is her way of joining up with them, since her family is mostly dead.

I've been frustrated by the pattern of "major character dies", "reset",
"repeat" for awhile, and now the impact is diminishing with each one. Tywin's death (if he is dead) will probably have an effect on the story in that Cersei is now the only power in King's Landing. There goes Tommen's shot to be a good king.

When I was a little girl in the late 70s and early 80s, my family were ex-patriots. There was precious little English language radio, except for the BBC World News. But every Sunday, a station played American Top 40 and it was a household event to listen to the whole thing while we did our Sunday stuff.

True enough, though Tyrion hasn't the personality or ambition of the real Richard. Rickon has no personality, of course. But Cersei lines up in a lot of ways with Elizabeth Woodville, down to the scheming and claims her kids were not legit. Except Cersei's family is more powerful. And Tommen is probably going to go…

Yes. But for a long while he was the loyal kid brother and brilliant military commander. Only after his big brother the king died and he realized that his sister-in-law wasn't going to let him stay in power or probably live, did he decide his nephews were illegitimate and he was the rightful king. (There were also…

I'm one of those history geeks that tries to look at historic analogs. Rickon is the baby brother of a politically connected Northern family that rebels and puts people on the throne. It's not precise, but Richard III was the baby brother of the York family and he supposedly went by Dickon. I don't know if it will be…

A friend from California explained it to me. A Hippie is just someone who hangs out at Ren Faires and Phish shows. A dirty hippie is someone who doesn't bathe and after they steal something from you they explain no one owns anything. The former is harmless, the latter a very specific type to be avoided/ridiculed.

Truthfully, "cojoined" is more accurate and appropriate. But I cojoined twins are still rare enough that I think of the line every time I see the word used.

Oh, great AV Club, now I bet you are going to refer to hillbillies as "Sons of the Soil".