AnonymousActuary
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User ID: 2163
AnonymousActuary
10d ago
Cy does seem to get treated poorly by the script - his adopted sister is super upset at him but its unclear when he found out (and was a literal child when he first met her).
I do agree in hindsight that it's odd for them to hide the jewel. Honestly, I don't know why Martha didn't just toss it in the acid? EDIT: I guess diamonds don't get hurt much by acid...
AnonymousActuary
10d ago
I think this has definitely had moments of truth, but some of the spiritual scenes did not ring like that to me. Blanc and Jud's first conversation (ending in Blanc's "Touche, Padre"), the phone call, the final confession and absolution. There was something sincere there. It might just be Johnson still feels some fondness for his religious upbringing and time in his life that he doesn't for the conservative end of the political spectrum.
AnonymousActuary
10d ago
I believe they specified his grandfather had a daughter, his wife then died, and THEN he became a priest
AnonymousActuary
10d ago
Cross-posting from Small Question Sunday (with some addendcums) upon suggestion: Maybe I just missed it, but a little surprised to see no discussion of Knives Out, Wake up Dead Man on the forum given the culture war angles of the previous two (immigration, tech billionaires). Disclaimer - I haven't seen glass onion. I will avoid major spoilers but minor spoilers may be included. I wouldn't read if you haven't watched it yet and want to.
Wake Up Dead Man certainly seems to be set up to skewer the church, and conservatives, with characters including a sci-fi writer-> substack blogger who is paranoid of the "libtards", a failed right-wing politico, who is attempting to build a following through youtube videos, and Monsignor Wicks, the bombastic preacher who exclaims that he must "fight" the decay in the country as an excuse for his own failings.
However, despite this, I was drawn to the film by the character of Father Jud - a young priest who killed a man in a boxing ring before coming to the priesthood, he is a compassionate character who pushes against the excesses of Wicks while nonetheless being devoted to Christ and to his faith. He offers eloquent verbal parries to Detective Blanc's (the main character in the Knives Out series, played by Daniel Craig) rationalist, atheist worldview, and takes his vocation seriously.
One of my favorite scenes involves Blanc and Jud working to try to find a clue which involves Father Jud calling a construction company and getting their receptionist. There's the standard comedic setup of the super-talkative receptionist who won't let him ask the question they need an answer to, but the whole scene shifts when she asks him to pray for her (link here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7VHPrO3SX5A). It's a really beautiful portrayal of pastoral care and prayer, and played straight. It seems to impact Blanc as well.
The sacrament of confession also plays a role and is highlighted in its entirety, a scene that happens due to Blanc's realizing that the moment calls for personal grace more than his grand reveals.
Father Jud seems almost more apolitical than political to me despite his opposition to Wicks and the other more conservative characters - he comes across as much more above politics than taking any particular political stand.
It seems like Rian Johnson has had a history of being religious but fell away from the Church at sometime in the last few decades.
Anyway, curious to hear what others thought of it.
AnonymousActuary
10d ago
You might be right - I'll post it in the new one tomorrow morning.
AnonymousActuary
10d ago
Maybe I just missed it, but a little surprised to see no discussion of Knives Out, Wake up Dead Man on the forum given the culture war angles of the previous two (immigration, tech billionaires). Disclaimer - I haven't seen glass onion. I will avoid major spoilers but minor spoilers may be included. I wouldn't read if you haven't watched it yet and want to.
Wake Up Dead Man certainly seems to be set up to skewer the church, and conservatives, with characters including a sci-fi writer-> substack blogger who is paranoid of the "libtards", a failed right-wing politico, who is attempting to build a following through youtube videos, and Monsignor Wicks, the bombastic preacher who exclaims that he must "fight" the decay in the country.
However, despite this, I was drawn to the film by the character of Father Jud - a young priest who killed a man in a boxing ring before coming to the priesthood, he is a compassionate character who pushes against the excesses of Wicks while nonetheless being devoted to Christ and to his faith. He offers eloquent verbal parries to Detective Blanc's (the main character in the Knives Out series, played by Daniel Craig) rationalist, atheist worldview, and takes his vocation seriously (a scene with him praying for a woman on the phone stands out as a highlight - might opine on it more in a comment later). The sacrament of confession also plays a role and is highlighted in its entirety. Father Jud seems almost more apolitical than political to me despite his opposition to Wicks and the other more conservative characters.
Anyway, curious to hear what others thought of it.
AnonymousActuary
17d ago
Hyperion by Simmons - Awesome. Really appreciated all the different perspectives and stories. My favorite book this year.
Make sure you read the sequel - there are books past the sequel that seem to be more unevenly reviewed but I liked the sequel quite a bit.
AnonymousActuary
27d ago
wtf happened in 2020 is COVID happened in 2020?? I'm confused why you think that isn't a sufficient explanation.
Depending on who you ask, half the country decided the other half wanted them dead rather than doing simple common sense things, and the other half thought the first half wanted them unemployed or in camps. I could write paragraphs more on this but I feel like that simple fact explains a lot.
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
kids everywhere. Had a friend visit from out of town today and he remarked how he had never seen this many young families in a Catholic church.
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
should note that Ross Douthat expressed some skepticism about Rod's approximation of the scope of the problem
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
functionally speaking this is the current status quo - commercial prices are generally somewhere around 1.5-2.5 of the Medicare price for a given service.
The hospital transparency stuff is hidden behind massive massive JSON files and poor data quality. Numerous startups are working in the space to make it actually transparent - still a work in progress.
The insurers themselves are doing some of the work by using eg variable copays to drive utilization to cheaper contracted hospitals. Only works in urban cores though.
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
it's worth mentioning how much of the admin is just due to complying with the regulatory burden that comes from being in the health care industry. The typical way we try to control costs is by rolling out complex programs that require more detailed coding, data tracking, etc.
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
This is even better in the books. Denethor and Theoden each have their moments of great competence, countered by the Witch-King. Saruman is arguably incompetent, but still a fearsome adversary just due to numbers and the timing constraints the free peoples are operating under.
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
they actually did that in Rise of Skywalker, with Rey using force lightning semi-accidentally (to not-kill Chewbacca)
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
I was a more strident advocate for DST being dumb, but I now think it is more appropriate, as trying to get kids up in the morning when it is pitch black outside is pretty rough.
In a world where school started at a more reasonable hour you probably wouldn't need it, but then there's all the knock-on effects from school also functioning as daycare...
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
There's an article on why it happened and was good actually, that several thousand more Americans died.
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
Ha this reminded me of an old article I read about the anti-suffragettes, which I had bookmarked, and upon finding discovered it was written by Helen Andrews, who has been in the news recently, but whom I had not known of before (other than finding this blog post at some point).
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
Why did Youngkin not run again?
AnonymousActuary
1mo ago
2021 was a very weird year that became a referendum on Democratic insanity around COVID and schools and sexual abuse therein
AnonymousActuary
2mo ago
wasn't it an important point that the shooter had been yelling at the pushers GF over something minor? If you are going to shoot someone it better not be because of an escalated situation that you started.
AnonymousActuary
2mo ago
The art definitely improves, but something goes down - perhaps the winsomeness? The first ones have a bit of melancholy to them, these are stories about a elderly man and his old cat, no wife or grandkids in the picture, and his friendship with his elderly neighbor and her dog. So there is some inherent melancholy to that which I think the early ones convey in the midst of these stories that have their funny and positive elements as well.
AnonymousActuary
2mo ago
been reading the Mr. Putter and Tabby books at bedtime. Just a wonderful set of kids books. Interestingly enough the author published 25 of them from 1994-2016, but I would say the first 5 are a class above most of the rest, and none of the ones after 13 are really anything special. i'll happily reread those first 5 and even 6-13 a pretty decent amount, but 14-25 get old.
You wouldn't think the author of a short kids series could rest on their laurels but they seem to be doing so.
Maybe next week I'll create my full ranked list for all the other young dads out there haha.
AnonymousActuary
2mo ago
is this really an escalation over like, DACA?
AnonymousActuary
2mo ago
Are you under the impression that I disagree with John Brown's actions?
to be honest I was, though perhaps influenced by that substack article. I guess I see how you could read it as acceptable under the circumstances, and then we are just arguing about circumstances.
I have definitely gained some respect for eg the Shane Claiborne's of the world he maintain a strict non-violence standard and just subjecting everything to that.
He mentions Wicks being buried in the tomb of "his father" at one point
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