CritterKeeper

They leave out most of the story, and the run, in that version. The traditional story is that a professional message-runner named Pheidippides ran from Athens to Sparta, about 150 miles (240 km) in two days, to ask for aid against Persian invaders, and ran back again with their answer, presumably in another two days. He then ran another 25 miles (40 km) from Athens to the Battle of Marathon, found out Athens had won, and ran back to Athens with the news. So, it wasn't a run of 26.2 miles that made him drop from exhaustion, it was running 350 miles (560 km) in about five days that killed him. Of course, that story doesn't show up until about 500 years after the Battle of Marathon. The historian Herodotus worked from first-hand interviews with eyewitnesses, and he never mentioned what would have been quite a compelling story.... If only we could go back to that sort of crazy President! Hey, for all we know, a curled nose was considered the height of beauty in that culture. He may have been the equivalent of Sir Strongjaw or Empress Spathic. Some of them reported hearing Belisarius mutter "Oh, boy...." just before the battle commenced. And then some weirdo realizes it's a perfect match to the tune Stafford Smith created for a drinking song about an obscure Greek poet who promised from heaven to teach the singers the fine art of drinking and wenching at the same time. Hey, you could do worse than someone smart enough to realize the battle is lost, and tough and sneaky enough to survive to fight another day. As long as he didn't do something dickish like order all his troops to fight to the death even when it became clear they'd lost....

Challenger I was in high school, in class in the South Attic, with our desks in a circle. I think it was an English class, but it could have been something related. The launch had gotten a lot of publicity because of Christa McAuliffe, first teacher in space, and a lot of schools all over the country were tuned in. They'd been watching the launch in the library on the second floor, and our music teacher came up and told us what had happened. I said "Oh my god!" about half a second ahead of our teacher saying the same words. 9/11 Our boss was out on the east coast for a veterinary conference and to visit family, and she was due to fly back later that day, so I was solo vet at work that day. I almost always had NPR playing on the radio in the morning, and then in my car on the way in to the hospital. Based on the timeline I'm reading, the first plane hit at 7:46am my time, and since I start work at 8:30am, I was probably at home getting ready for work when they announced it. I don't think anyone realized at that point that it was anything more than a horrible accident. The second plane hit 8:03am, not sure if I was in the car yet or not when they announced it. Word of the plane that hit the Pentagon would have been within ten minutes after my usual start time at work. We didn't have a very good TV at work, just a little TV/VCR combo we kept for kids to watch videos on while their parents and pets were in an exam room. There was no cable, only antenna, so the picture was lousy, but we had it tuned in as best we could by the time the first tower collapsed. I had a few appointments but watched in between them. A lot of people were worried that Chicago would be a target, especially the Sears Tower, so even businesses without any New York connections were shutting down; we're out in the suburbs, but some clients commute and others worked at branches whose main office was downtown. As the morning went on, a lot of people who'd been sent home from work or were supposed to be flying that day wound up calling to make last-minute appointments, and they made up for the ones who cancelled. They shut down all air traffic all over the country, and my boss had the good sense and foresight to get to the car rental counter before the rush, so she was able to drive back instead of flying; her return would only be delayed one day. We're near Pauwaukee Airport and see a lot of planes headed towards or out of O'Hare, so it was really noticeable to not see any contrails or hear any engines going by overhead. I have an aunt who lives in Manhattan, but I looked online, must have been MapQuest back then, and could see that she was pretty far from the Towers, and she didn't work near there either, so I wasn't really worried about her being directly affected. It was still good to hear from my mom once she finally got through that she was indeed okay. She was worried about some of the people she knew who were closer, though. I haven't seen the actual site of the Towers, but when I went to a vet conference in Las Vegas, the hotel casino New York-New York had a fence around one part that had been hung with T-shirts from all the police and fire companies who lost people in the collapses. It was quite touching. Sort of like seeing the Vietnam Memorial wall, sad but not from direct personal impact.

So, Liz just has to hang in another five years? C'mon, Bess, you can do it!! I've read that not only was the bakery not actually on Pudding Lane, but on a side-street off of it, the site is currently in the middle of Monument Street, Pudding Lane having been moved to make room for the street named for the monument to the fire. I love reading entries like this, because looking further into them is so fascinating! According to the Wikipedia article, McKinley was accompanied by not only "his usual Secret Service agent, George Foster," but also two other Secret Service agents added at the request of McKinley's personal secretary, who had tried three times to remove the event from the President's schedule for fear of assassination attempts. The man directly ahead of the assassin in line to meet the President was described as "swarthy" and was looked on with a great deal of suspicion by the Secret Service and police present. He shook the President's hand and move on without incident. The man in line after the assassin was a mix of African and Spanish ancestry (so probably also "swarthy"), and he tackled the assassin faster than any of the police or Secret Service agents, before he could get off a third shot. One of the new bits of technology being presented at the Expo was a primitive x-ray machine. Instead of using it, doctors trying to find and remove the bullet stuck their hands into the wound and fished around. Later Thomas Edison sent another x-ray machine, but it apparently arrived with a crucial part missing. Tesla would've gotten it working if he'd sent it! This one deserves to be quoted in full. "The best surgeon in the city, and the Exposition's medical director, Dr. Roswell Park, was in Niagara Falls, performing a delicate neck operation. When interrupted during the procedure on September 6 to be told he was needed in Buffalo, he responded that he could not leave, even for the President of the United States. He was then told who had been shot. Park, two weeks later, would save the life of a woman who suffered injuries almost identical to McKinley's." John Hay was McKinley's Secretary of State. He had also been Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and a good friend of James Garfield. If he hadn't died in 1905 he probably would have been connected with JFK somehow, too. I wonder how many people have searched for some encounter between him and old Joe Kennedy? Hey, it worked for Emperor Norton I! He was imitating the ancient Greeks and Romans, who thought that big, floppy, unwieldy dicks were hilarious and made fun of them. Note that Magellan had died in the Philippines, and the Victoria arrived under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano. No joke or info, I just think this is really cool! Huh, I had no idea Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer was named after a real person! And Admiral Grace Hopper, one of the most important figures in the early days of computing, carefully preserved it in the logs for the day. Note that this use of the word "bug" did already exist, hence it being funny enough to find a real bug messing things up for her to make the joke in the first place. :-) The goal to beat is 72 years, 110 days. George VI died 6 February 1952, so our target is May 27, 2024. Born 21 Aprl 1926, she'll be 98 years, 1 month, 6 days old. That only requires going about a year beyond the average life expectancy for someone her age.

Ah, but do you remember finding out about it?

Anyone else playing Harry Potter: Wizards Unite? I'm finding that Ingress, Pokemon GO, and Wizards Unite, while using the same locations, are very different games and are all enjoyable. However, there just isn't time to keep up with all three, so I find that PoGO is the one that's falling by the wayside.

Congratulations in the weight loss! Not an easy thing to do, no matter the method. So tell me, Hack, do you get a little thrill seeing that "she" the same way I got a little thrill at being called "Doctor" when I got my DVM and license? :-D I am not familiar with this saying. Spoons? Cool! As we point out to clients, it's usually better to find something that's treatable! We see pets with hidden foreign bodies like that sometimes; if they're a plant awn or other organic foreign body that's the same density as the surrounding tissues, instead of being metal that will show up on a radiograph, it's a real pain in the butt to find the darn things. Yeah, but I think I agree with TOH that it's time to start looking into a new dentist. I know you may have to see this one to the end of the year because someone new would charge more to fix their mistakes than they will, but it's still time to get a second opinion on the later work, once the insurance starts paying again.

They are notorious for tipping over glasses of water, and other beverages, usually into the most inconvenient place possible. Like into the keyboard. My late cat, Sir Patrick the Fuzzy-Mouse Slayer, used to come up to a full glass of water and carefully inspect it. He'd check it out from multiple angles, including where it was sitting. He'd look inside to make sure it was full. He'd push it with his front paw to test how heavy it was. And then he'd look directly at me before calmly hooking his paw over the edge of the glass and deliberately pulling it over. I think he liked to see the water go sploosh, and my reaction was just bonus entertainment value. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the Challenger had exploded. I remember 9/11 too, but somehow it didn't have quite the same impact, other that worrying whether my aunt who lives in Manhattan was okay. (She was.)

Yes, but there's also a note at the start, "Note, I didn’t write this; but it’s been floating around the internet for a few years now, and every time I read it, it makes me smile (especially since my wife is Canadian!)."

A little late to the party, but I also add my voice congratulating you on coming to a new understanding of yourself, and I hope that you can find new peace and comfort as well as safety and support. I hope you will find this positive and not offensive....there was someone in my area who ran a prop shop who turned it into a BDSM space on weekend evenings, and they at some times presented at "Tina", with the place being known as "Tina's Place." But, a good chunk of the rest of the time, they presented as male (can't even recall his legal name offhand). He had very masculine features and usually had a five o'clock shadow, if not more....and so did Tina. They were willing to dress up anyway, at least in safe spaces, in wonderful frilly dresses and bows and sparkles. I don't know if they just accepted the masculine features and didn't care, or had given up trying to look more female and come to terms with it. Either way, within the "family" that gathered there, in the safe space that I knew Tina at, everyone was accepting and loved Tina for who he or she was, whichever the case might be at the time. They also had a wonderful, charming wife, as far into middle age as Tina was, which given that this was late 90s was probably a big reason for presenting as male to the outside world.... Older trans women always make me think fondly of Tina. May you find joyful ways to express yourself and enjoy your new self-knowledge, and may those who love you continue to do so. *hugs*

There was a miniature golf place we went to when I was growing up called Putt-Putt. Yes, it han the windmills and such.

I'm sorry you felt pressured or targeted, that was not my intent. I was engaging in a theoretical discussion, using hyperbole to illustrate a point. Social ostracism has been shown, time and again, to be one of the worst punishments a person can face. Hence why "shunning" was so feared, and so effective a deterrent. The person I quoted (who was not you) had brought up the point of what our goal should be regarding those who commit social offenses, and I was agreeing with them. You had not addressed their point in that matter, so I wasn't seeing myself as replying to you, only to them and the overall discussion. That's the point I was replying to. Not your post, or I would have quoted you instead of them. Trying to resist the temptation to quote Magneto....that might be seen as rude....

Once? Hah! Amateurs....Chicago set its river on fire multiple times!

This, for me, is the crux of the matter. What would we want someone who has done something terrible to do? Should they dress in sackcloth or a scarlet letter, and never ever be a part of society again? Should they kill themselves because they can never, ever make up for their error? Or should they change, stop doing the terrible thing, sincerely apologize to those they have harmed, and resolve to do better, to become a force for good instead of evil? And if they can make that change in themselves, shouldn't we encourage that, instead of continuing to vilify them just as hard as if they had never changed at all?

Y'know, it's easy to forget how literally true this is. Grace's natural form is apparently her part-squirrel form, so the form we tend to think of as "Grace" is a transformation, and she at least spends all day at school and in public in her non-antenna human form, and a lot of her time alone with friends is in human form with or without antenna. Grace really is literally transformed almost all the time. Of course, that brings up the difference between Uryuom transformation, where Grace changes forms but is not enchanted once she's transformed, and typical human magic transformations, where they are enchanted and will revert to their default form when the enchantment ends. (Except for spells like Tedd's that specifically change the default form, but that's apparently a lot rarer and harder to do....) Ellen was more nervous than Sarah was about the whole thing. I can guarantee I have never won a chess set as a prize from a golf tournament. In fact, other than Putt-Putt, I have never golfed, period. And rather like discovering just how many people don't actually have even one bookshelf with books on it, you might be surprised how many people have never owned a chess set, and indeed don't even know how to play chess. (I'm not one of them, I'm way too geeky, but I don't really know anything about chess strategy and such, so some would say I don't really know how to play, I just know how all the pieces are allowed to move. ;-) Hmm, given that what I own is actually a box that has pieces and boards for chess, checkers, backgammon, go, and a few other games, does that count as a fraction of a chess set, ir does its geekiness make it count as more than a mere chess set?

This is an excellent point. Elliot and Diane both made crappy comments, and both have realized they were wrong to do so. In fact, Elliot never actually apologized to Tedd, he just tried to show that he feels differently now. Diane came right out and said she was wrong to say it and she was sorry she had.

She's gone through a lot of growth and realization, about herself and others, since then. She's also made what seems to be a genuine sincere apology to the person she used it on. I'm with Justin -- accept the apology and forgive, unless she does it again, in which case, by all means hold the original offense against her again.

Handy dandy rule for whether to say "she and X" or "her and X" is to remove the "and X" and see if it sounds right. "Diane stated that her would be there" doesn't sound right, but "Diane stated that she would be there" does. Therefore, "Diane stated that she and Lucy would be there." As usual, posted in the hopes of helping interested forumites improve their use of the English language, not out of any desire to criticize the poster who is quoted. :-)

This thread is the place to discuss spelling, grammar, and everything else about the proper use of the English language. All corrections, discussions of improper use, and jokes about errors should be done here, not in the rest of the forum. Anyone who does not wish to read "Grammar Nazis" or "spelling flames" is invited to ignore this thread. If it bothers you, don't read it! If, however, English is your second (or more) language, and you would like to improve your use of it; if you're a native speaker but find that your writing lacks the eloquence which you desire; if you need to be able to write in professional contexts or other forums where poor use of the language would be a detriment; or, if you just plain love the language and want to see it used correctly (and your tongue gets sore from biting it when you see common errors) -- this is the place for you! Remember, courtesy rules of the forums still apply here. Correcting spelling is allowed, but in a polite, respectful way. Actual flames are still not allowed. Whenever possible, don't just say that someone's grammar is incorrect, explain what the error is and what the correct options are, including shades of meaning they might convey. In other words, try to be helpful! If you see something that doesn't look right to you, but aren't sure why, post it here and ask! Examples may be quoted from real life and the printed word as well as from other threads on this forum. You can use the "quote multiple posts" function to quote something in another thread and bring it to this one. Rules of this thread will be adjusted and adapted as needed -- hopefully there won't be much need to if everyone plays nicely!

Someone robbing a bank may intend to only use the gun to intimidate people, and plan on their accomplices doing the same, but sometimes things don't go as planned, sometimes people get shot during robberies, and the robbers don't get any slack just because they didn't plan on killing anyone. Magus is the one who instigated the whole plot; Sirleck was recruited by him and was nominally under his command. Any harm that came because of Sirleck, Magus would be legally culpable as much as Sirleck, if not moreso. Magneto's plan and characterization in the first movie was much better. How do you get a persecuted minority to not be persecuted any more? Make it so the people in power are members of that group. As the in-movie history lesson said, why did Rome stop killing Christians? Because the Emperor became a Christian. Magneto didn't want to kill anyone in that story, he wanted to turn non-mutants into mutants. He didn't know that the transformation was unstable and everyone affected might die. After the first movie established his character so well, it was really jarring to see him behave so differently in that later movie. Not saying it couldn't have been done believably, but the writer(s) just didn't lay the groundwork for it. There is a difference between bringing facts to POTUS's attention when they become relevant, and piling on an overwhelming number of facts about all branches of their duties the minute they take office. It would be quite reasonable to not bother the President with, say, the strategic value of a particular town in the border, until it becomes relevant, say by an enemy moving their troop exercises close to that town. A good leader can't do or know everything themself, they have to rely on good subordinates to bring them the relevant facts as they become relevant. We have no idea of the circumstances of the battle between Noriko and Not-Tengu. She could have been trying to kill him outright, she could have been trying to subdue him or disable him and take him in, she could have been defending innocent civilians and only injured him to the extent necessary to drive him away. We do know that Wolf refers to "the last time someone took this guy down," not to someone trying to kill him specifically. Again, in the first movie, he saw non-Mutants as potential recruits, so if nothing else, he saw them as having value that way. I'm pretty sure Magneto equated the non-Mutants who persecuted Mutants to the Nazis who persecuted Jews (and a boatload of other groups). How much empathy do you expect a Jew to have for Nazis, especially while the Holocaust is still going on? Yup, all sorts of reasons exist for a wrongful conviction to occur. Every one of them is a reason not to take an irrevocable step like execution. And of course, that august body *never* lets politics come into their decisions, never votes along party lines...oh, wait.... I agree that Arthur was only deciding whether to continue pursuing Magus, rather like the Distirct Attourney deciding whose case gets prosecuted, or the Police Chief deciding which criminals to devote which resources to finding. I don't think we can go that far; more like, he might draw the line for a "mutually beneficial deal" in a different spot than Edward would have, or Magus would have preferred. I'm curious how he'll react when he learns that Tedd isn't always a "she". I think it was more the pleasurable experience of eating, of the textures and smells and flavors of food, and the pleasure of being able to satisfy a basic biological need, not actual physical hunger. And yes, calories being burned to fuel magic may be a factor in how much food he got, but so might wanting to try several different toppings and combinations. Here's hoping his hotel room has a little fridge for storing leftovers! Definitely a case I can see where need-to-know is taken seriously. If POTUS needs to know, they'll be told, but if the lower authorities can handle things, why tell someone who might Tweet it to the whole world? I just recently fnished reading the book The Dead Zone, in which the protagonist is in a coma for four and a half years. It was written in the late 70s, so you can imagine the kinds of changes he had to adjust to. There's also Spider Robinson's short story "The Time Traveler" (one of the early Callahan's Place stories), where a man was in prison in a third world country for several years. The world he came back to was so strange to him he was almost ready to commit suicide. Things change a lot more quickly than we realize, because we're living through it one day at a time. As to whether Terra knew what happened, that is a very good question, one I hope we eventually learn the answer to. It would be interesting if she showed up to save the day. Lots of possibilities there! Hmm, perhaps involving her squeezing through a small portal that Magus can't fit through because he chose the larger masculine frame? ;-)

Yes, and in America "braces" are what goes on your teeth to straighten them, which is called just a "brace" in Britain, which would be something you put on a weak leg to help it hold your weight in America.... Hmm, true. Might be cute or might be annoying, depending how it's handled and how often.

Yes, and it used to be that a black man would be beaten to death if he whistled at a white woman, and a woman couldn't charge her husband with rape because she was considered to have given perpetual consent to whatever he wanted when she married him, The way it used to be usually changed to the way it is now for a reason. If nothing else, there were plenty of cases of mistaken identity, frame-ups, fabricated evidence and false witness, all sorts of things that might come out if the accused got a trial. Too many real bad guys got away with murder and worse because someone else was killed for the crime before they could get a trial. Even today, people are found to have been innocent who had already been executed, or had lost decades of their lives rotting in prison for crimes they were proven innocent of. At least if they're alive, the wrongfully convicted have a chance of proving they're innocent. Look at Magus. He committed some truly awful acts, working with an Aberration and conspiring to set other Aberrations loose in a public space surrounded by innocents; kidnapping and mental domination, body-snatching....we know he had good reasons, but what if he'd been killed in the process?

He didn't actually say it was over years; it may be that the moment he became an Aberration, he lost all his good intentions and any remaining empathy. I actually have just a teensy little bit of sympathy for Sirleck based on what he told of his history. Makes me think of Harry Dresden -- taking extreme measures in order to gain power for good ends, but those very measures trying to destroy all interest in those good ends. I could picture him being a well-intentioned extremist who might have had some hope of redemption if he hadn't taken that last step over the edge.

We also know that Fox can cast any of Nanase's spells, up to the limit of the power Fox has access to. Perhaps now the fairy dolls have the same ability? (And it's great to see you posting again! ;-)

To use a truth-detection spell in court, you would have to present some pretty strong evidence that a) it's reliable, and can't be fooled by self-deception, counter-spells, or magically altering someone's memory, for example, and b ) everyone present has some way of distinguishing, with absolute certainty, between an actual functioning truth spell and an illusion which would immitate the effects of one. Likewise, a truth compelling spell, if allowed, would have to be distinguishable from the caster taking control of the subject and making them say what they want them to say. The Diamond springs to mind. Athe golem would fall under self-defense and defense of others. Aware of a second or third-hand account of his story may not have the same impact as witnessing and/or talking with him directly. I agree. If Magus has even half the desire to help and protect people that Elliot has, he would probably be much happier having something positive to do while waiting to find a way back home. This is a guy who was training to combat dragons to protect cities! He does seem to mistrust the authorities here, though, so he might not accept their word that any given task was for the greater good. You're pretty qick to assume that everyone will just throw out the Constitution at the drop of a hat. I would expect there to be *some* sort of system in place, as close to normal as they can get. As I said, bench trials or a jury of their magic-using peers might work. Even for the 9/11 terrorists and Guantanamo detainees, much of the debate has been about whether they should be tried in military or civillian court, not whether they get a trial at all. So yes, if they have successfully taken Not-Tengu into custody, I expect him to receive a trial of some sort. This is, after all, EGS, where Ellen wasn't taken to a lab for study, but sent home to her family with enough prize money to pay for her upkeep, and where Grace's siblings have been taken in and taught how to use their abilities safely and eventually reintegrate into society. Expediency is a very dangerous excuse to bypass due process and constitutional protections. Who is going to object? Good people involved in the process who want to see it done right, same as always! I can definitely see there being a small number of lawyers aware of the reality of magic who are called upon to make sure the process is followed as much as possible, and that any deviations are fair ones. Again, you see a much darker view of the world than EGS has generally proven to be. Yes, with an actual active threat, force may be required, but when Mr. Verres went beyond the rules and attacked with greater force than was called for, he was disciplined for it. There is clearly a system, and good people who work hard to uphold it and weed out the bad apples who would abuse it.

Don't forget that Magus is undoubtedly guilty of kidnapping and accessory to kidnapping. It wouldn't surprise me if putting a spell on someone against their will counts as some sort of assault, too. Trespassing on a government facility, destruction of property, heck, grand theft auto -- they can find things to charge him with if they choose. (I almost added driving without a license but I think Sirleck did all the driving.) Of course, they may do so more as a means of leverage than with the intention of actually sending him to prison or whatever other punishment they have for magic users. Arthur didn't hear the parts of the story that were explained in the car, he only saw for himself what was caught on camera. The "much recapping" from Ellen, Elliot and Ashley may not have been complete, so he may not appreciate just how desperate a situation Magus was in. And he may be the sort of person who would believe that *nothing* justifies what Magus and Sirleck did, that Magus must pay the consequences of what he did. (As an aside, it occurs to me that Arthur may have a more positive view of Elliot and his parents than he might otherwise, because they clearly share his philosophy of supporting life he's unintentionally created.) Besides, what choice do they have but to try to find Magus? He's shown himself willing to break the law in this universe (and he likely doesn't even know what all the laws are yet), he's a powerful magic user, and he has the potential to cause a heck of a lot of trouble, whether he means to or not. If he's stuck here, it's in their best interests to find him and try to get him working for, or at least with, the DGB. They might be able to guilt-trip him into helping if they can figure out something related to the consequences of his actions that they can draft him into to start. Or, they might be able to put some sort of restriction or restraint on his use of magic -- whatever it is they plan to use on not-Tengu to keep him under wraps and out of trouble, for example. What sort of justice system could you have for magic users in this universe, anyway? Are all cases bench trials, decided by a judge? Are there enough people in the know to supply a reasonable jury pool? Do they have magic-resistant prisons, or are all punishments of the community service variety? Can you use magic on a prisoner during interrogation? If there's a Calm spell and Sleep spells, what about Anxiety or Agitation spells? Truth spells?