“”Emperor Norton, please awake and protect is in our hour of need! In legendary times long ago you came to us with your wise counsel and your sheltering power, please restore your just and loving rule!”
“I have placed information into this R2 unit including Gavin’s plans for three more high speed rail systems, all leading only to Gavin’s winery compound in Napa, a project to implant speech monitoring devices in every citizen of the Formerly Golden Now Singed State, though not in ‘migrants’, which will enforce British-style speech control laws with electric shocks, a plan to pre-vote all California mail-in ballots for the next twenty years, and a project which will triple the already massive human feces load on the streets of your beloved San Francisco through feces cloning. These projects must be stopped at all costs.” ”Help us, Emperor Norton. You are our only hope!”
If Gandalf had read the door aloud before translating it, the door would have just opened.
And this was one of those scenes that was better in the book. Gandalf figured it out on his own, but a stupid question by Merry gave him the hint he needed.
The screenwriters gave the solution to Frodo because he was so passive in the first part of the adventure. You don’t have to like it, but “you know what? We should probably have our protagonist do something that the audience likes him for before the two hour mark” is a pretty solid reason to do it.
I would have more sympathy for that argument if they hadn’t cut every moment of Frodo showing anything like leadership or initiative (including his unsuccessful stab of the Witch-king on Weathertop, and his defiance of the Nazgul at the Fords), and reduced him to a swooning, useless woobie.
Like, did you ever do a deep dive into the extended editions and see what the one-year production was like? The fact that they got anything coherent out of production is something of a miracle. Did they make some dumb calls? Sure. But they got so much right that griping about the relatively small number of things they got wrong is armchair quarterbacking, at best.
And except for Denethor, whom they simply misunderstood, the things that look like stupid decisions generally had a fairly understandable justification in the moment.
I would have more sympathy for *that* argument if the ‘zon weren’t doubling down on PJ’s mistakes, like all the manufactured soap opera and more fallible, allegedly “relatable” characters, and so on.
They did do Denethor badly, and I wasn’t fond of the, “let’s make Aragorn uncertain of his destiny,” bit, but I understood it. Didn’t agree with it, but understood it.
If he had still been with us, Jeremy Brett would have made a perfect Denethor.
Strip was 1987; inflation calculator says $100K (1987) is $285K (2025), so good guess!
18 years of $463 monthly deposits (total ~$100K) at 2% yields about $120K – around $20K lost opportunity cost. I’ll spot the kid the $100k, but I want the $20K! How much per sandwich …
And, picking a state school, had an 18-year-old Calvin started at UC Berkeley in 2004, his tuition, fees, and books for 4 years would have been about $28K. Starting there this year is likely to cost about $68K
Harvard 4-year undergrad degree would be about $126K in 2004, estimated $287K starting in 2025.
Here’s some pain for me: my undergraduate degree at U San Francisco was around $7K 1967-1971 (I was a boarder so it cost more, but ignoring that.) Starting this year? Estimated $255K!!!!! Is a USF degree 89% as ‘good’ or ‘valuable’ as a Harvard undergrad degree? (In some contexts, maybe, as 0=0 )
The outrageous inflation of college costs is largely a result of government ‘help’.
Which costs have inflated the most over the last 40 years? College and health care, by far. Which areas has the government been meddling in most intrusively? Ummm, college and health care. Gee, who’d’a thunk? ☹️
Instapundit had an amusing item up on this earlier in the week. A particular law school is the generally the first to post it’s tuition every year. The tuition has been going up every year, and was $64,000 last year, IIRC.
It’s $50,000 this year, which “coincidentally” is a new cut off in the amount of tuition aid the FedGov will provide.
My undergrad college was $70K for four years, including books and room and board (had to live on campus). It is now $80K/year.
Grad school started at $100/hour in-state graduate rate. It was $1200/hour semi-in-state graduate rate six years later. And I actually had a prof wonder why I was working so hard to finish so fast!
In 1977 I was at UC Berkeley for my graduate degree. IIRC, it was $200 per quarter tuition, all the units I could eat. (Went to semesters in 1983) I bought the student activity thing so I could go to football games.
4 quarter program, finished in 3. (No thesis, one of the reasons I picked that program) Rented an apartment off campus, don’t recall what that cost. Had a bicycle, no car.
It is also possible that Uncle Sam wants you to make up a semi-plausible or obviously incorrect false federal office or agency, with a badly photoshopped seal, and create a bluesky account, and troll some peeps. (I’m akshully a little sure I am completely imagining the last.)
That (made up?) book cover is odd. Snurrlisonsdottir? “Daughter of the son of Snurrli”? I can easily imagine a girl with the patronymic Snurrlisdottír, but that one confused me.
The made-up book cover made me think: Ja, Odin? So, like, Ingrid and Dagmar totally made fun of my buckler. So, should I, like, gut ’em both or pull their ribs out?
Re: Going back in time to destroy AI at its source — let’s not forget Talking Barney.
Some years ago, we were stationed overseas, and during a TDY Stateside, I bought one of those damned things. I lugged it home, took it out of its box, installed the batteries, and set it down in front of my then-toddler daughter.
Result? Scared the shit out of her.
Said daughter will be thirty years old in three months…
Given the episode where Barney led the kids in a rite to conjure up Mother Nature (I think it was Mother Nature), your daughter had excellent instincts.
My son loved Barney. We saw too much of it. (He progressed to. “Barney must die,” around 10 or so)
Age 4 our son insisted on being Barney for Halloween. We’ve never let him forget it. Including blowing up the picture for surprise display at his Eagle Court (suppose to be minor embarrassing incidents. The other was his picky eating habits transitioning to “see food” diet at 14, at Philmont of all places. Philmont where he was the only one to not lose weight, but gained weight, of coarse he grew taller too. Philmont weighs participants before the treks, they do not expect anyone to grow inches. Kid grew inches.) Yes, son too started hating Barney at about 10 or so.
“tried to bore my 3yo to sleep with subatomic physics”
–> origin story of a supervillain
And somehow that reminds me of the fanfic “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality”, in which Harry’s foster father was a loving chemistry professor instead of a heartless dunce, leading to amusing chaos when Harry reached Hogwarts.
Re “treats him like a saint”: on Miguel Gonzales’s blog, a commenter mentioned “Ballistic beatification” — “The miraculous process in which a criminal who catches a bullet for his crime, is suddenly canonized as a saint.”
According To Hoyt 
The Reader has stolen an undetermined number of these for the greater glory of the Empire. Oh wait – this is no Emperors Day.
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No, it’s No Stephen King Books Day.
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Thats EVERY day.
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Emperor Norton Protects!
(19th century Norton, absolutely not any sort of IT Norton.)
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“”Emperor Norton, please awake and protect is in our hour of need! In legendary times long ago you came to us with your wise counsel and your sheltering power, please restore your just and loving rule!”
(adjusts kneeling posture slighlty, raises clasped hands higher)
“Because anything, anything would be better than Emperor Newsome! Return, we beseech thee!”
(The editor notes, simply and factually, that an Emperor is Not a King.)
LikeLiked by 3 people
“I have placed information into this R2 unit including Gavin’s plans for three more high speed rail systems, all leading only to Gavin’s winery compound in Napa, a project to implant speech monitoring devices in every citizen of the Formerly Golden Now Singed State, though not in ‘migrants’, which will enforce British-style speech control laws with electric shocks, a plan to pre-vote all California mail-in ballots for the next twenty years, and a project which will triple the already massive human feces load on the streets of your beloved San Francisco through feces cloning. These projects must be stopped at all costs.”
”Help us, Emperor Norton. You are our only hope!”
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Emperor Norton is the inspiration for San Francisco Brewing Company’s beer selection. They’re good beers.
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It is a dark money plot by the Ray Kroc trust to respond to the fact that the Whopper is char broiled.
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SFBS!
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If Gandalf had read the door aloud before translating it, the door would have just opened.
And this was one of those scenes that was better in the book. Gandalf figured it out on his own, but a stupid question by Merry gave him the hint he needed.
LikeLiked by 3 people
The screenwriters gave the solution to Frodo because he was so passive in the first part of the adventure. You don’t have to like it, but “you know what? We should probably have our protagonist do something that the audience likes him for before the two hour mark” is a pretty solid reason to do it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I would have more sympathy for that argument if they hadn’t cut every moment of Frodo showing anything like leadership or initiative (including his unsuccessful stab of the Witch-king on Weathertop, and his defiance of the Nazgul at the Fords), and reduced him to a swooning, useless woobie.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Like, did you ever do a deep dive into the extended editions and see what the one-year production was like? The fact that they got anything coherent out of production is something of a miracle. Did they make some dumb calls? Sure. But they got so much right that griping about the relatively small number of things they got wrong is armchair quarterbacking, at best.
And except for Denethor, whom they simply misunderstood, the things that look like stupid decisions generally had a fairly understandable justification in the moment.
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When one compares the resulting films to subsequent efforts, especially the abomination from the ‘zon, there is absolutely nothing to complain about.
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I would have more sympathy for *that* argument if the ‘zon weren’t doubling down on PJ’s mistakes, like all the manufactured soap opera and more fallible, allegedly “relatable” characters, and so on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, there’s always an understandable justification in the moment. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. :)
LikeLiked by 2 people
They did do Denethor badly, and I wasn’t fond of the, “let’s make Aragorn uncertain of his destiny,” bit, but I understood it. Didn’t agree with it, but understood it.
If he had still been with us, Jeremy Brett would have made a perfect Denethor.
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Oh, John Noble did a fine job. It was the script that failed him. Though, yes, Brett would have been a great choice as well.
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Forget the spelling, that is one tiny sandwich for six bucks. ☹️
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Children are expensive.
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When I was growing up, my parents used to tell me that. Especially when I asked for an expensive toy… 😁
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https://i.redd.it/c0hm3g3o4r531.gif
Indeed. But recovering some of the investment over lunch is not out of the question.
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That’s a really old cartoon. Bet it’s over $300,000 by now. 😧
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Strip was 1987; inflation calculator says $100K (1987) is $285K (2025), so good guess!
18 years of $463 monthly deposits (total ~$100K) at 2% yields about $120K – around $20K lost opportunity cost. I’ll spot the kid the $100k, but I want the $20K! How much per sandwich …
LikeLike
And, picking a state school, had an 18-year-old Calvin started at UC Berkeley in 2004, his tuition, fees, and books for 4 years would have been about $28K. Starting there this year is likely to cost about $68K
Harvard 4-year undergrad degree would be about $126K in 2004, estimated $287K starting in 2025.
Here’s some pain for me: my undergraduate degree at U San Francisco was around $7K 1967-1971 (I was a boarder so it cost more, but ignoring that.) Starting this year? Estimated $255K!!!!! Is a USF degree 89% as ‘good’ or ‘valuable’ as a Harvard undergrad degree? (In some contexts, maybe, as 0=0 )
LikeLike
The outrageous inflation of college costs is largely a result of government ‘help’.
Which costs have inflated the most over the last 40 years? College and health care, by far. Which areas has the government been meddling in most intrusively? Ummm, college and health care. Gee, who’d’a thunk? ☹️
LikeLiked by 2 people
Instapundit had an amusing item up on this earlier in the week. A particular law school is the generally the first to post it’s tuition every year. The tuition has been going up every year, and was $64,000 last year, IIRC.
It’s $50,000 this year, which “coincidentally” is a new cut off in the amount of tuition aid the FedGov will provide.
LikeLiked by 2 people
My undergrad college was $70K for four years, including books and room and board (had to live on campus). It is now $80K/year.
Grad school started at $100/hour in-state graduate rate. It was $1200/hour semi-in-state graduate rate six years later. And I actually had a prof wonder why I was working so hard to finish so fast!
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In 1977 I was at UC Berkeley for my graduate degree. IIRC, it was $200 per quarter tuition, all the units I could eat. (Went to semesters in 1983) I bought the student activity thing so I could go to football games.
4 quarter program, finished in 3. (No thesis, one of the reasons I picked that program) Rented an apartment off campus, don’t recall what that cost. Had a bicycle, no car.
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the STATE school my kids attended went from 15k a year for older son to 40k a year for younger over EIGHT years.
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Grad school was a state U. I shudder to imagine what a private college would have cost.
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The Reader believes the label resulted from some version of AI auto-insert. If that belief is accurate, the Reader worries.
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Have you tried sourcing good children lately? All of the fresh ones are spoiled!
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I need to mug more coffee. 😉
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Frenz,
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/10/18/trump-administrations-splashy-entrance-to-liberal-playground-bluesky-imitates-shermans-march-to-the-sea-n2195207
It is also possible that Uncle Sam wants you to make up a semi-plausible or obviously incorrect false federal office or agency, with a badly photoshopped seal, and create a bluesky account, and troll some peeps. (I’m akshully a little sure I am completely imagining the last.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
…Ron Frenz reads this blog!?
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Imagine of the Nazis had limited themselves to conquering the fashion world… 😄
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If. If, dammit! 😔
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Workd of Warcraft had an in-game organization spoofing the Nazis. The guiding doctrine of the organization was called “fashionism”.
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Don’t worry, I read it as “if” to begin with and had to go back to see what you were correcting.
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Don’t worry, I read it as “if” to begin with, so I had to back to figure out what you were correcting.
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Don’t worry, I read it as “if” to begin with, so I had to back to figure out what you were correcting.
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That (made up?) book cover is odd. Snurrlisonsdottir? “Daughter of the son of Snurrli”? I can easily imagine a girl with the patronymic Snurrlisdottír, but that one confused me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The made-up book cover made me think: Ja, Odin? So, like, Ingrid and Dagmar totally made fun of my buckler. So, should I, like, gut ’em both or pull their ribs out?
LikeLike
Obviously Snurrli’s son was stripped of his name for some egregious misdeed and the girl was raised by her grandparents.
LikeLike
Re: Going back in time to destroy AI at its source — let’s not forget Talking Barney.
Some years ago, we were stationed overseas, and during a TDY Stateside, I bought one of those damned things. I lugged it home, took it out of its box, installed the batteries, and set it down in front of my then-toddler daughter.
Result? Scared the shit out of her.
Said daughter will be thirty years old in three months…
LikeLike
Given the episode where Barney led the kids in a rite to conjure up Mother Nature (I think it was Mother Nature), your daughter had excellent instincts.
My son loved Barney. We saw too much of it. (He progressed to. “Barney must die,” around 10 or so)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Age 4 our son insisted on being Barney for Halloween. We’ve never let him forget it. Including blowing up the picture for surprise display at his Eagle Court (suppose to be minor embarrassing incidents. The other was his picky eating habits transitioning to “see food” diet at 14, at Philmont of all places. Philmont where he was the only one to not lose weight, but gained weight, of coarse he grew taller too. Philmont weighs participants before the treks, they do not expect anyone to grow inches. Kid grew inches.) Yes, son too started hating Barney at about 10 or so.
LikeLiked by 1 person
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The fourth one brings GK Chesterton to mind. It would be just like some reformer to tear down that gate, only to release the Fey.
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The silent victim, yes….
Need more wolves…. Cackles
A sandwich in need of an editor!
Not out of range, indeed.
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That meme about half-way down is more like the devolution of the Left. 😛
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And now: A Clanker song! Featuring a Stormtrooper Boy Band!
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Question is “Just because it can be done, should it be done?”
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Bonus for the meme with Val Kilmer. Ice Man will always have my heart.
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Living well is the best revenge…..
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3odfxVWEAA4o98?format=jpg&name=360×360
Hoping this will display.
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“tried to bore my 3yo to sleep with subatomic physics”
–> origin story of a supervillain
And somehow that reminds me of the fanfic “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality”, in which Harry’s foster father was a loving chemistry professor instead of a heartless dunce, leading to amusing chaos when Harry reached Hogwarts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Re “treats him like a saint”: on Miguel Gonzales’s blog, a commenter mentioned “Ballistic beatification” — “The miraculous process in which a criminal who catches a bullet for his crime, is suddenly canonized as a saint.”
LikeLiked by 1 person