“Is something said by a fictional person in a fictional story really considered a statement of fact though?”

“Were people really watching the Matrix and judging it based on whether it was realistic for machines to use people as batteries, though? I know I wasn’t. The answer is obviously “sci-fi magic”.”

No it really isn’t. Alan occasionally drops stuff that reveals he has reactionary/right wing views, and makes a more-or-less competent attempt to hide it most of the time. There would be no way the character would ever think the BBC was “too right wing”.

He is right wing, but knows he isn’t supposed to let it slip for his lefty paymasters at the BBC.  Highlights include his “question time” session before a byelection where he isn’t bothering to hide his support for the conservative candidate (and increasing frustration that the guy isn’t coming across better).

Its the price we pay for having the best electrical system design. When you step on a plug, bellow “Rule Britannia!” at the top of your lungs.

“U.S. horror from this era decried as a part of a general British stereotype of Americans as loud, extreme, and unsophisticated.”

It’s getting on my wick.

I went into this not knowing anything about the case, and resisted the urge to google any of it until I’d seen the whole thing. This review would have been a spoiler to me since I didn’t know what happened to Sobhraj in the end.

Occasionally she does. But her main interactions (with Sobhraj and Nadine) are in English with what (I assume) is a Quebeqois accent.

“Why did you tell me the secret?”

There is currently a life size cardboard cutout of Johnny Depp in my house, for reasons related to his legal troubles.

Apples and oranges. The writing style of the Silmarillion is like the Old Testament; broad brush historical stuff with little in the way of character or motivation (other than “Melkor is jealous and afriad, and the Valar are sad about what he’s done”). It’s not really a novel any more than Beowulf or the Book of…

I refuse to believe that computer cheated at chess.  I think that he got outplayed fair and square.

I’m late to the party (stupid Kinja) but this is amazing. I live a couple of miles from Bamber Bridge and had never heard of this.

The bikers are the alien minders/handlers. Check up on how their scout’s mission is going, clear up after any mess or evidence, that sort of thing.

I recall an American (possibly on this website) reporting a brave attempt at trying marmite on a UK visit. Unfortunately he must have been very badly advised, as his method was to eat a spoonful of the stuff. No surprise, it didn’t win him over.

Ahem. It’s “Elisabeth” with an “s”.

He was fired from his security guard job at the shop after rugby-tackling a shoplifter.  He was already an ex-cop by that point.

I think the idea was that they were exhausted, and hence reluctantly set up camp in the dump even though they really didn’t want to. Next day they would travel to somewhere nicer.

“Why do you assume they were unable to follow it? The article didn’t say they COULDN’T follow it, it says they DIDN’T follow it.”