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A bit of an extreme example, but yes I don't want to live through another event that will be in the history books neither

Not really a problem with the food itself, but with Chipotle, their serving sizes are shrinking before my eyes and they would charge extra for RICE?? I'm sorry but that's it for me, anything Chipotle is a No No from me

Your story seems like a light of hope in my gym journey, I gave up after 5 months, and to know I was 1 month close to see the progress pilling up, I hate myself for that, I will pick up going to the gym again and hopefully I achieve the same results as you, or even better haha

I personally, am not psychic, but I don't know about FantasyCreature.... 6. Was it named? (Like a dragon or direwolf or warhorse has a name I mean.) 7. If not named, was it the cave lion Jaime and Cersei saw?

1. It was animate 2. It was a living thing 3. It was an animal 4. It did not live and die over the course of the main timeline. 5. It was a particular ie individual animal. (I've given too much away, haven't I?)

They are redirecting their forces to bottom-of-the-sea research, how thoughtful of them.

That's the wolf in sheep's clothing, it looks good on paper, but it doesn't stimulate the economy, therefore people expect inflation to keep droping so they hold on and spend very little, which leads to workers getting laid off and all sorts of bad economic stuff, hopes it keeps a normal level in the near future, don't want to experience another historic event in my lifetime

Is it a particular ie individual animal rather than an animal species?

The drop in bean prices will only save you for so long, even if your Karl Pilkington cooking for a king.

Inflation down to 2.3%. That's good news finally.

Galladon is a Sandor parallel. The theme regarding Brienne and Galladon is that she has imposter syndrome, she thinks she could never belong in the company of the likes of Galladon, in contrast to how boys like Bran dream they could be the equal of the famous great knights. The pay off will be Brienne will fight side by side with the greatest contemporary knights in the realm, parallels of these great legendary or historic knights (Sandor for Galladon, Jaime for Aemon), and prove herself as great as them in deed, which is what really matters. Her deceased brother was named Galladon, which explains what her father wanted in a son, Brienne will be all that which the name symbolises but simply because she was born female it'll be an embarrassment rather than a source of pride. Galladon is the perfect knight, Sandor returned will be the embodiment of the true knight. The wording may be different purely because it'd be too obvious that Galladon = Sandor if Galladon were called the true knight. Perfect or true, they're representing the same thing, an inhuman level of knightly honour. Eventually the returned Sandor is going to falter in his honour (and so prove himself human), and it'll be best for the realm and Brienne(s side) that he does, and this will further make the point that is a key theme in Brienne/Jaime's arc, that being faultlessly honourable is both an impossible standard and often immoral. Galladon being perfect is just a stupid story, not something to define your life by.

Poch to Man Utd seems like a sensible move. Apparently they can spend a lot this summer as a lot of their losses are dropping off this year.

Again I haven’t spent to much time analyzing the Samwell 1 chapter of ASOS but I thought of ice spiders when I read this: I thought maybe the horse that Sam sees is analogous to Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged horse. And the blue glow is moonlight with waves that are a specific part of the visible light spectrum. Blue light waves have shorter wavelengths and higher energy compared to other colors of light, such as red or yellow. Blue light is also scattered more easily than other colors, which is why the sky appears blue during the day. Moonlight does not actually glow blue; it appears to be blue to our eyes due to a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. Rayleigh scattering is the scattering of light by particles in the atmosphere. When moonlight passes through the Earth's atmosphere, the shorter blue wavelengths of light are scattered more efficiently than the longer red wavelengths. This scattering effect causes the blue light to be more prominent in the moonlight that reaches our eyes, giving the impression that moonlight has a bluish hue. In reality, moonlight is reflected sunlight, and its color is actually a very pale yellow or white, depending on the moon's phase.

Thank you for your interesting thoughts and refections. This in particular has been a question on my mind. I wonder how or when WWs come into existence as creatures of ice and snow and cold. What connection is there between trees and the WWs. Do the trees hold the souls of the Others until they are mobilized as white walkers. Are the WWs themselves soldiers and sentinels? I've wondered if the plopping of snow off a sentinel tree or soldier pine indicates that a WW has just taken on its icy form. I do think their swords are made of an ice so cold and hard, that striking it with metal would be like hitting stone. I don't know how good castle forged steel would be in such a contest. I imagine it could be chipped or splintered. After repeated contact with the Others blade; Waymars sword is covered in hoarfrost. I don't know if that exacerbates any flaws or weaknesses in Waymars blade. I'm inclined to think its Waymars sword that shatters like glass. I'm not really sure where Waymars party is located on the map when they encounter the Others. I'm guessing they are near the Fist of the First Men where the Watch encounters the wights for the first time. We could be getting into some hilly country, so I don'r know if the place where Waymars party is a ridge or caldera. Certainly there is a lot of geothermal activity in the area. We have sink holes and caves where you can get a hot bath. I don't know about active volcanos though. Certainly in the past. That explains the obsidian. I'm not sure what Waymar thinks he hears. He may be sensing a change in the environment, sensing that it has become very cold all of a sudden. He becomes more alert, an adrenaline reaction perhaps?

That's beautiful. What a lucky girl.

I like the idea that Illyrio is descended from Bittersteel and Blackfyre’s daughter. Call it the Goldfyre theory! They were escorted across the entry hall, where a mosaic of colored glass depicted the Doom of Valyria. Oil burned in black iron lanterns all along the walls. Beneath an arch of twining stone leaves, a eunuch sang their coming. I still wonder what part Tyrosh plays in the game of thrones, interestingly the Brother of the Archin was at Dany’s presentation to Drogo, which follows to excerpt above, and the daughter of Tyrian played in the Water Gardens of Dorne (and Doran claims he had intended to send his daughter to be a ward in Tyrosh). I bring this up, because Daemon Blackfyre’s wife, and the mother of his children, was Rohanne of Tyrosh. But, back to Illyrio. Beneath the gold the bitter steel: Gemstones glittered on every finger, and his man had oiled his forked yellow beard until it shone like real gold. ….and: "You are too suspicious." Illyrio smiled through his forked yellow beard. Oiled every morning to make it gleam like gold …and Viserys’s death, a skull covered in gold, do to baring his borrowed bitter steel: He waved the sword over his head, the borrowed blade that Magister Illyrio had given him to make him seem more kingly What does Illyrio love more than gold? "He was not born wealthy. In the world as I have seen it, no man grows rich by kindness. The warlocks said the second treason would be for gold. What does Illyrio Mopatis love more than gold?" "His skin." Across the cabin Drogon stirred restlessly, steam rising from his snout. "Mirri Maz Duur betrayed me. I burned her for it." Red or black (like Drogon, who’s snorting here to highlight the irony), a dragon is still a dragon. When the dragons dance, everything burns. The Targaryen sigil, is a three headed red dragon on a field of black breathing golden flames. The gold coins of Westeros, are, of course, called dragons. "I admire your powers of persuasion," Tyrion told Illyrio. "How did you convince the Golden Company to take up the cause of our sweet queen when they have spent so much of their history fighting against the Targaryens?" Illyrio brushed away the objection as if it were a fly. "Black or red, a dragon is still a dragon. When Maelys the Monstrous died upon the Stepstones, it was the end of the male line of House Blackfyre." The cheesemonger smiled through his forked beard. "And Daenerys will give the exiles what Bittersteel and the Blackfyres never could. She will take them home." Illyrio has sway over the Gold Company, perhaps in part by being Bittersteel’s heir. The magister waggled his fat fingers. "Some contracts are writ in ink, and some in blood. I say no more." The dwarf pondered that. The Golden Company was reputedly the finest of the free companies, founded a century ago by Bittersteel, a bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy. But the question is, whose blood? One might argue, since the male line of the Blackfyres has been extinguished, Bittersteel’s male line has the better claim to the Iron Throne, as Aegon the Unworthy legitimized all his bastards on his death bed, including Bittersteel. "No. A sellsword, you would call him, but Westerosi born. Daenerys needs men worthy of her cause." Illyrio raised a hand. "I know! 'Sellswords put gold before honor,' you are thinking. 'This man Griff will sell me to my sister.' Not so. I trust Griff as I would trust a brother." Bloodraven and Bittersteel were brothers who hated each other. Illyrio does not seem to trust Griff with the true identity of Young Griff. I think this next exchange is interesting as well. Notice the black cherries, usually red, but red or black a cherry is still a cherry. Tyrion and Illyrio are clearly talking about Myrcella, but by the end of the conversation it’s clear Illyrio is also talking about Dany. Which begs the question, what has Dany done to Illyrio that he would hate her so? That he would seek to crown her and kill her? He foresees Dorne rise (we know Dorne did have a marriage pact with Viserys and has sent Quenyn as a suitor for Dany) and Westeros calling out for a savior. This may well be his outline of a plan for Dany’s future. "My niece Myrcella is in Dorne, as it happens. And I have half a mind to make her a queen." Illyrio smiled as his serving men spooned out bowls of black cherries in sweet cream for them both. "What has this poor child done to you that you would wish her dead?" "Even a kinslayer is not required to slay all his kin," said Tyrion, wounded. "Queen her, I said. Not kill her." The cheesemonger spooned up cherries. "In Volantis they use a coin with a crown on one face and a death's-head on the other. Yet it is the same coin. To queen her is to kill her. Dorne might rise for Myrcella, but Dorne alone is not enough. If you are as clever as our friend insists, you know this." Tyrion looked at the fat man with new interest. He is right on both counts. To queen her is to kill her. And I knew that. "Futile gestures are all that remain to me. This one would make my sister weep bitter tears, at least." Fun note, the “death’s-head” on the Volantine coins, called honors, is a skull. Illyrio goes on to talk about the sacrificial prince of Pentos, and to say there is another, a three headed dragon. Given the existence of Young Griff, it seems fair to say Illyrio expects Dany to end up as he predicts Myrcella would. That to crown her was to kill her. Didn’t he say he expected her to die when she was sold off to the Dothraki? All along it seems he’s had his own claimant waiting in the wings. A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if those poles will be topped by grinning golden skulls. The smile remained, transformed into a glittering golden grin. All the skulls were grinning, even Bittersteel's on the tall pike in the center. What does he have to grin about?

A new murder mystery series is heading to PBS. The show is called The Marlow Murder Club and stars Samantha Bond (Downton Abbey, Home Fires), Jo Martin (Doctor Who, Back to Life), Cara Horgan (The Sandman, Traitors), and Natalie Dew (Sandylands, The Capture). Based on the eponymous book by Robert Thorogood, the series, which got a release date and first trailer today, gives us a group of unlikely sleuths who work to solve a local murder case. The Marlow Murder Club will premiere on Sunday, October 27 at 9:00 p.m./8:00 p.m. ET/CT on PBS.

It seems like Russia is determined to get the bulk of their Baltic fleet 'promoted' to submarine status, especially if they try to enforce these 'adjusted' aquatic borders. Part of it, I think, stems from a complete inability to grasp NATO's nature. Russia decides to 'adjust' borders with Lithuania and Finland in Baltic Sea (msn.com)

Which made me wonder if they can alter a weapon that they have at hand. Melisander says the Others are made of snow and ice and cold. It's not ordinary ice, well, because it's flexible and allows for subtle movement. Ice spiders come to mind. I make the blue component to be "the cold" part of it. The part that she refers to as the soul of ice. I think the blue glow can only be in the sword so long as the WW has contact with it.

I agree wholeheartedly. There are many ASOIAF theorists, analysts and influencers who frankly do not know what they're doing when they attempt symbolic interpretation. Many of them are completely confident in their great aptitude for symbolic interpretation, and have large audiences of their own who they teach their habits to. I hesitate even to call them methods. In such an environment, it can be hard to tell apart the sense from the nonsense, the researchers from the peddlers, and the theory from the analysis. Or to borrow a sentiment from Varys, Melisandre, Littlefinger, and now you, it can be hard to tell apart who is seeing what's really there from who is merely seeing what they want or expect to see. I bring up Varys, Melisandre and Littlefinger to show you that you're in intelligent company, and that this topic of symbolic aptitude is a core theme at work in ASOIAF. I think I can show a demonstration of it in this Brienne chapter. My thesis for this demonstration is that well done symbolic interpretation is uniquely marked by its explanatory power over not just the things in the story but also the story's effect on its audience. (This is why self-awareness is needed for symbolic interpretation — I need to observe my reaction to the story even while I'm having it, or at least to take a sober accounting of myself afterwards.) In this chapter, Brienne and Dick exchange stories about their hometown heroes. Dick tells about Ser Clarence Crabb, and then Brienne tells about Ser Galladon of Morne The Perfect Knight. Part of what makes Galladon a hero is that he's honorable, and one of the ways he's honorable is that even though he has a magic sword, he hardly uses it. According to the tale, he never uses it against a mortal man because it would make the fight unfair. Who knows how much of the Galladon story really happened? But that doesn't matter because the word "story" can but doesn't need to mean "fiction." Story is the root word of history, and we all understand that history is non-fiction even though it tells a story, and even though it tells a story like a story — with narrative structure, dramatic emphasis, omitting unworthy details while retaining ones deemed important, regardless that the events as lived contained no such favoritism for storytelling. A historical person's moment-to-moment reality was mostly filler like ours is. Story and history alike boil events down to their gist. Therein lies the essence of the meaning of the word story: gist. It's the actionable takeaway for the reader, also referred to as theme, symbol, lesson, teaching, didacticism, and moral of the story. The actionable takeaway in Ser Galladon's story is approximately 'Great power is bestowed upon those who can bear great responsibility.' Galladon's valor earned him the magic sword, yet his honor prevents him from using it except when absolutely necessary. Nimble Dick points out the paradox: Brienne responds that the point is honor. Like power and responsibility, honor is a lofty word that can mean too many things to mean anything, but one thing we're shown that it surely means in this Galladon story is fairness, particularly fairness in fights: Dick responds with ridicule by describing a scenario where Galladon's restraint in a hypothetical fight against Dick's hero Ser Clarence Crabb has cost him his life: This shows us that Brienne and Dick extracted two different actionable takeaways, or lessons, from the very same story. It's as if ASOIAF is echoing your comment that fans who do symbolic interpretation see whatever they want to see. This chapter is addressing that complaint, if we can take the lesson. Let's keep going and see if or how this magic sword drama resolves for these characters. Brienne's response maintains Dick's hypothetical scenario, because we learned (from Dick?) in the previous Brienne chapter that Clarence Crabb was eight feet tall and rode an aurochs. So Brienne didn't invent this foe, it's a description of Clarence Crabb specifically. Her point is that Galladon would easily recognize that Clarence is a powerful enough foe that the magic sword will be needed. She adds that Galladon used the magic sword to slay a dragon, who, while mortal, is not a man, so Brienne has not contradicted her previous claim that Galladon did not use the magic sword against mortal men. Still, Ser Clarence is a mortal man, and if Ser Galladon had indeed used his magic sword against Clarence as Brienne suggests, he would have made himself less honorable of a hero in doing so. So Brienne has successfully rebutted Dick's point, but at the cost of some of her hero's honor. This cost might imply that Galladon's honorable way was less perfect than his Perfect Knight nickname suggests. An attentive Brienne or reader can be left wondering 'What's the matter with honor, then?' ASOIAF's subtext in this back and forth between Brienne and Dick seems to be 'There's something wrong with honor.', but for now, it leaves the question to us about what that thing is. This is quite a different takeaway than either Brienne's or Dick's, but in this form it is not actionable for us, so we're awaiting its resolution. Brienne spots a mysterious man (Hyle Hunt) following the group at a great distance, and then she remembers this story about the time her master-at-arms tried to teach her a lesson. This memory of Ser Goodwin's lesson echoes much of the lesson Nimble Dick extracted from Brienne's story about Galladon — don't hold back when it counts. This gives Brienne a second opinion about the Galladon interpretation, making the tally two against one, and perhaps influencing her decision soon after. Before entering the Whispers, Brienne has a bad feeling and she remembers Dick's ridicule about Galladon not using the magic sword. At the last moment, she sends Pod to get her own magic sword, Oathkeeper, and she gives her regular sword to Dick, finally trusting him and in a big way, even if out of necessity. Apparently, Brienne saw how Galladon relates to and can symbolize her and her present situation, both of them being an honorable knight with a magic sword that they restrain themselves from using. She recognized that this is a moment when the magic sword may really count for something, and I can see from the way the fight plays out that it does. Oathkeeper moves faster and cuts deeper than her normal sword would have. In a fight of one against three, every second counts. In the end, Brienne achieved character progression by learning from a story, and she learned from a story by noticing how it's implicitly referring to her and her situation through commonalities like "Me and Galladon are knights", "Me and Galladon have a magic sword", "Me and Galladon are honorable", "Me and Galladon are against a dangerous foe." Stories are for the living to take lessons from them or not and apply them in their lives or not. The subject of any story is always ultimately the person reading it. The characters whether fictional or historical will never benefit from the story, because they aren't real or they aren't alive. It's there to benefit the person who's reading it, and that's why somebody went to the trouble to write it. As the great literary analyst Joseph Campbell put it, if you never make the connection to yourself, you have misread the story. I think ASOIAF's philosophy adds: 'It is better to take the wrong lesson than no lesson at all.'

Oh, so that's why.

Some pretty fancy swordplay for a WW, don't ya think. You don't see any of that in the AGOT Prologue. I wonder where it learned those moves. And where does it get the sword in the first place? Does it come with the kit when the WW is made or do they make their own weapons? And what happens if they drop their weapon? Does it turn back into ordinary ice? Lose its blue glow? As usual, I only have questions and no answers.

Haliburton coughed it up too many times in the closing seconds. Still, never expected them to be close in the first place. Not sure if we can hope for a good series or if that was the Pacers best shot at an upset. McConnell is really fun to watch, he's undersized but is dynamic. I think you're not giving Murray enough credit. I've said it before, but Jokic's on/off differential is that large not just because he's that good, but also because a) his backups are Jordan and Nnaji b) Malone usually leaves him with more starters than Murray when rotating in the bench (that has changed slightly this season). And there's a long way from not being as good as Doncic and Irving to not being a ball handler or creator. For what its worth, I think he is a better playmaker than Irving. He's not the same as Donovan Mitchell.

This is exactly what I think should be mentioned on the wiki and how it should be mentioned.

Shocker. /s