The Mercury Eight was a runner in its day.

Yeah, that’s a new one on me too. Where I’m from, “Merc” is usually gearhead speak for a Mercury not a Mercedes. Then again, I’m old and out of it, so what do I know.

That’s just not so. J.M. Barrie’s book popularized Wendy as a girls name, but it predates the book by centuries.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy

Good points all. Blizzard never has prioritized communication.

Too late. Someone at Blizzard should have remembered that “You never get a second chance to make amfirst impression.” No amount of FOMO will bring me back to this tedious grind disguised as an event.

To keep my family as happy and healthy as possible, as long as possible.

NA beer is not basically “beer flavored soda.” The only thing the two have in common is carbonation and even that is produced differently in each. Soda is flavored syrup mixed with water that has been carbonated by forcing CO2 through it. NA beer is brewed the same as regular beer, and carbonation occurs during this process. For some NA beers, fermentation is arrested before significant amounts of alcohol form, while others are subjected to a vacuum to lower the boiling point so that the alcohol can be boiled out with a minimum effect of the flavor.

PSA: if you do stop to talk to someone at the supermarket, don’t do it in the middle of the fucking aisle. Between you, your friend and your respective carts, you create an obstruction for everyone else who just wants to get their damn groceries and get out.

I use a kettle at home, but I’ve used a microwave at work. I don’t understand what’s remotely laughable about doing so. Boiling water is boiling water.

I’ll tell what is laughable is how America restaurants typically serve hot tea. They draw a small metal container of hot water from the spigot on the side of the coffee maker, and bring it to the table with an empty cup and a teabag. By the time the bag goes in the water, the water is far too cold to infuse properly.

I can’t dispute that, but in fairness, there are quite a few of the original Sherlock Holmes stories where the reader couldn’t be expected to solve the mystery. The Adventure of the Red Headed League is one such, as I recall, though it has been quite a while since I read it.

For me the fun of the show is in the chemistry between actors and in the development of Sherlock’s character as someone who discovers his own humanity and eventually forms connections with those around him.

Elizabeth Keen in Black List. Writers constantly told us how brilliant and special she was, then showed her acting like a dimwitted, hormonal teen.

Pimento

I like long, ridiculous names like Sylvester Birtwistle from Lovecraft Investigations or Thockmorton P. Ruddygore from Jack Chalker’s Dancing Gods novels.

At least read the article. Literally the second sentence reads:

“The agency said that it is taking “urgent” steps to increase compliance such as auditing more high-income taxpayers as well as businesses and partnerships. “

It goes on later:

“ The IRS has said it won’t increase audits on households earning less than $400,000 annually.”

I have a 4 meg Pi 4b running Pi-hole and Mini-DLNA. It’s rather under-utilized for those tasks, but it serves them quite well.

“Aping” is kind of a pejorative way to describe what The Orville does. If they were “aping” TNG, they’d be imitating it in a very derivative manner. It’s more of an homage to TNG, but in a comedy format with original ideas and character dynamics.

The Orville’s first season is no worse than TNGs. There were some truly awful first season episodes of TNG. Code of Honor is a good example of an awful episode.

I don’t think better or worse comparisons are very meaningful. They’re both good shows. TNG has many of my favorite Trek stories and characters. I think it says a lot that it inspired so much of what The Orville does.

There’s a difference between contributing to society by performing productive or helpful labor, and the sort institutionalized wage slavery we currently call “work.”

Most of us are subject to the tyranny of the clock, petty bosses, arbitrary rules about where we work or how we dress. This is what we never opted into and can opt out only after a lifetime of it or at great cost in terms of our ability to provide the necessities for ourselves.

Anarchist Bob Black explores this distinction in his essay, The Abolition of Work. I recommend reading it.

Nor is it a “duty” but rather is a right.

Lest I give the impression that the book is entirely about human/hisa relations, it’s not.

That’s one of three intertwined plot threads, the other two being interstellar war among humans and the politics and logistics of running a space station overwhelmed by refugees of the war.

A classic: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh. In it, the planet known to humans as Pell’s World is populated by the gentle, sentient but technologically naive Hisa. The Hisa are exploited by humans as a manual labor force. Some humans decry this exploitation and work to establish a more compassionate, cooperative relationship with the Hisa.