"For we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armour was never so necessary."-Dorothy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning
TCM Remembers 2021
Friday Flotsam: Thoughts on ‘No Way Home’
1. It being New Year's Eve, I suppose standard practice would be to give some kind of a retrospective of the year gone by or speculations of the one to come. But we have more important things to talk about today; namely Spider-Man! I'd thought I was done with the MCU, but the word-of-mouth on … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Thoughts on ‘No Way Home’
Christmas
No flotsam this week. Instead here's the poem 'Christmas' by Sir John Betjeman: The bells of waiting Advent ring,The Tortoise stove is lit againAnd lamp-oil light across the nightHas caught the streaks of winter rainIn many a stained-glass window sheenFrom Crimson Lake to Hookers Green. The holly in the windy hedgeAnd round the Manor House … Continue reading Christmas
Thought of the Day
The fact that we cannot trust our current rulers - whether government, media, corporate, or Church - is itself one of the things that must be taken into account by any solution to the current situation.
Talking Bitcoin at ‘The Everyman’
My latest Everyman article went up last week (I was on vacation visiting relatives so missed sharing it 'out of the box'). This one delves into the topic of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. The short version is that I think paying actual money for meaningless bits of data that only have value because people … Continue reading Talking Bitcoin at ‘The Everyman’
‘Twas the Dark Knight Before Christmas
The YouTuber It's Just Some Random Guy was, for me at least, a staple of the early and high days of the superhero renaissance. Entirely using action figures, he'd put out comedic sketches where a DC and a Marvel character compare notes on their latest films (e.g. the first round was Superman Returns and Spider-Man … Continue reading ‘Twas the Dark Knight Before Christmas
Quick Thoughts on ‘Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt So I’ll Max Out My Defense’
Since I mentioned Bofuri in the Friday Flotsam before last, I realized that I was due to give it a rundown. And since I’ve just come off of a re-watch over the past weekend (it’s very short: only twelve episodes in the first season), now seems the time. Maple and her Guild Teenaged Kaede has … Continue reading Quick Thoughts on ‘Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt So I’ll Max Out My Defense’
Friday Flotsam: Class Values and Rudolph
1. Something many people forget or miss is the fact that different social classes or castes or what have you have different value structures. This isn't the same as having different values as such: the same religion and the same moral ideals are liable to be preached across all classes. Rather, it's a difference of … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Class Values and Rudolph
Friday Flotsam: There’s Really No Through-Line for This One
1. As I understand the matter, modern corporations are descendants of the religious orders. The idea is that property does not belong to any particular member, but rather to the imaginary ‘corporate’ self. In the religious orders, this was to allow for a vow of poverty: yes, the abbey had a lot of property, but … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: There’s Really No Through-Line for This One
Serpent's Den 