Tongue Stuck to Wall

Don't forget Sebastian the hedgehog, now in his dotage, espying Gollum as he attempts to eat a baby in a cottage on the eaves of Mirkwood, then jumping and spinning around like Yoda in the prequels as he rescues the aforementioned infant.

Scot, here's a link to an article you may find interesting about Tolkien's religious influences and such concepts as free will and predestination: (DOC) Voices of a Music: Models of Free Will in Tolkien's Middle-earth | Troels Forchhammer - Academia.edu You need to use an email to log-in but the article itself is free and well worth the read, I think.

Well in this case, I suppose it just comes down to a plot device: the Ban fits the cosmological narrative of the continued separation of the spiritual and temporal worlds, and also offers the motivation for the destruction of Numenor so Tolkien could include his version of the Atlantis myth.

I was under the impression it was for the Numenoreans' own good, as, being in Aman itself, they would become even more resentful of the Eldar's and Valar's immortality. And of course we know men were indeed susceptible to this as the whole ar-Pharazon debacle demonstrated.

Ah apologies, I wasn't referring specifically to you all and am sorry cause it did come across that way! I totally see how your point about Biden was a one-off, and it was DMC's correction of it (which you graciously accepted) just got me going in general about the whole issue.

This can also perforce be extrapolated into the need for some people to refrain from undergoing convulsions in attempting to tie every aspect of the war to the minutiae of American domestic politics. This year will undoubtedly tough for Ukraine but they will be more self-sufficient than ever by 2025. I guess some take a form of morbid solace in their pessimism to assume that if the latest aid package doesn't eventually pass or if Trump gets elected again then it will automatically result in a defeat for Ukraine. Ukraine's proved remarkably flexible and creative in making do with what they've received; any doomsaying amateur observer can eliminate Ukraine all they want from behind a keyboard, but all that accomplishes is to show up their lack of understanding.

What did Johnson expect? He can't even control his own face let alone MTG.

Yeah that went about as well as expected, lol. Apple Cheeks is hitting the campaign trail early!

Wert, I was wondering the same thing so I did a bit of research on the budgets for each of the series. Here are the results adjusted for inflation: Band of Brothers - $125 million in 2001 dollars = $225 million in 2024 The Pacific - $200 million 2010 = $350 million(!) 2024 Masters of the Air - reported $250 million So Masters does indeed have a healthy enough budget based on the other series, but it is for sure conceivable the focus on the POW camps in the last episodes could be due somewhat to financial constraints. That said, I think it's worthwhile to consider also: -By 1944 there weren't that many more "dramatic" missions episode-worthy of which the Schweinfurt/Regensburg and Munster missions weren't already representative; - It's a good opportunity to balance out the relative lack of characterization in the earlier episodes. Cleven and Egan are of course still two of the main characters so this gives us an opportunity to follow their stories further; - The series is also trying to be somewhat faithful to Miller's book, and he does devote a considerable amount of the last chapters to the source historical account to the Kriegies overall and their experiences. As DBunting alludes to above, the source material for each of the series has definitely been progressively more difficult to adapt successfully. BoB had the discrete focus on Easy Company, The Pacific on Basilone, Leckie and Sledge, but Masters is a massively sprawling comprehensive history of the air war in Europe. When I first read it, I was surprised the 100th Bomb Group features only sporadically (maybe 5%?) in the entire work; the rest of it deals with other Bomb Groups and squadrons and the strategic planners and decision makers such as Arnold, et al. I can appreciate for the challenges faced by the showrunners and script-writers of Masters: trying to introduce engaging and memorable characters while adhering to the source material in presenting a realistically-told story. Not an easy row to hoe by any means.

Good comments so far. I've watched the first two eps, too, and find the usual attention to detail from a Spielberg/Hanks/Orloff production to be excellent. Two observations: firstly, the debate of USAAF daylight precision vs. RAF night area bombing was handled interestingly. When the 8th Air Force became operational in 1942 and started their first missions, there was intense pressure from Harris and Bomber Command to integrate American forces into the night campaign. Needless to say, Arnold, Spaatz, Eakers, Anderson, et al waged a successful effort to keep the American forces operating on a diurnal schedule. Could this conflict have been played out in fist-fights outside of an East Anglian pub? Well, now we know and natch it keeps the focus on the air crews themselves. Secondly, anybody pick up on the egregious technical error involving the position of the waist gunners? Offset gunners' positions, where they weren't constantly bumping into each other's backs and bums were not available until the B-17G model (which is easy to identify because it has the chin twin .50 cal turret). The Forts used by the 100th in 1942 and '43 eg: Alice from Dallas did not yet have this feature. I am of course being pedantic for satirical purposes, but the point does stand.

I've been playing since the first Warcraft and I have no idea what's going on other than Anduin now looks like Casey Affleck.

I was going to comment on KC's lack of catching fundamentals but dropped my phone.

That postgame interview...no equivocating, no pandering, no smiling...I got a semi watching it.

Miami's media department desperately stalling for time while Mike McDaniel scans memes for this week's bon mots for the post-game press conference.

That was a masterful gambit: hawking his book on Amazon at the same time he was suing the company.