Tjack

Boris

Shellfish.

Also how well do you want to be able to speak the language? For a character I thought should be a world traveler i had a pretty expensive list going, until I realized that there were some reasonable limitations. Languages like Cantonese, Mandarin or Farsi might be fluently spoken without being able to be read them or spoken with accents good enough to fool native speakers. If you can speak, read and write English you should have no problem and thereby no cost to reading and writing Spanish or French, as long as you paid to speak them.

This has nothing to do with real world prejudice or the screwy views on genetics racists tend to spew but in the Marvel Comics Universe that might not be unsound thinking. In the universe the of X-Men, mutant parents tend to have mutant offspring. While Hank McCoy’s father was supposed to work around radioactive materials the other parents of the original X-Men had no paranormals or mutants in their family trees, so this is not always true. But in general mutant and mutated gene pools do produce paranormal kids. And not all mutations are beneficial. The children of Peter Parker, Reed & Sue Richards and Magneto are enough proof for any parent who doesn’t want to play dice with their future grandchild’s health to be at least wary of an obvious mutant dating their child. There are enough real world genetic diseases that give couples second thoughts about having children when one of the partners is found to be a carrier. Just a stray thought.

That’s because Americans are frightened by other languages. This is why the metric system never caught on. In high school a multi year language requirement still has the same effect as a drawing on an Etch-a-Sketch. As soon as you get your diploma, the student gives their head a good shake and it’s all gone. In the U.S. speaking another language is like performing a magic trick. It astounds most people and scares the dumb ones. The only reason Cinco de Mayo has gained the minor amount of traction it has is that to Americans it’s just annual Tequila day. To anybody about to fire up the Bitchmobile, I am a native born American and I love my country. I’m just not blind to its flaws. BTW; I took two years of French and can only say “Jem appell Tim”. Fat lotta good that did me when I went to live in Arizona and work as a cook for five years, but now I know how to curse in Spanish.

“Beer Buggery” Nice phrase! It took me a second to figure out what you were talking about. It sounded like something that happens to you if you go to the Oktoberfest with the English Navy during the 1700’s. ”All righty now Cabin Boy, it’s time to pay for yer’ lager!”

Other than whenever Jeri Ryan came close to being naked, there wasn’t one. My real problem with the show was the advertising. The next week teasers and commercials always promised not simply an interesting episode but one where something major and permanent happened to one of the characters. On a good show that stuff actually happens with consequences for ongoing episodes. Voyager was the king of fake-outs. In the whole series only one person ever left and one came on. Except for B’Elanna giving birth (and that was only because the actress was pregnant) nobody ever really evolved as a person. People remembering the effects of “Year in Hell” or some mention of Harry Kim not being the same one they left with for example. Everything had to zero out and go back to the beginning so that the ever changing crew of writers didn’t have to keep up with any changes. Take series like Buffy or Babylon 5. Major plot development every season, important characters coming in & out like thru a revolving door. Voyager just cried wolf too many times for me to care anymore.

In the Superhero world, not scientific terms. A Mutant is someone born with super powers that their parents or ancestors didn’t. Example; Any one of the X-men, Sub-Mariner, Captain Comet, etc. A Mutate is someone who was changed by an outside force. Example; Any one of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Captain America, etc. The idea for racists in the Marvel Universe is that Mutants are literally a different species, Homo Superior who will someday replace humans as the dominant species on the planet. Mutates on the other hand are “just regular folks” that something happened to. Whether you’re setting up the camps to to hold Jews, Japanese, Mexicans or Mutants when it’s prejudice, it doesn’t have to make sense.

Pastoral

The Consul from Kingdom of Champions is an ambassador from an alien race. I assume if his status was less than human Earth would probably have a war on its hands.

Sade (The woman who sang Smooth Operator)

What might be more episode friendly is to start them as 50 or 75 point normals and as the session ends give them that extra 10 points as a bonus. It gives them the opportunity to role play someone who’s dealing with powers exploding out of control, but doesn’t slow your game down to a crawl. Now you have a week (or what ever time between sessions) to work out with them some proper write ups. Keep doing that every episode until you get to the point level you want. Are you going for a “white event” or “Heroes” kind of thing?

Well, Pariah started this thread nominating Freddy Mercury and Roy Orbison. Freddy’s was pretty melodious and Roy’s was high and pure. So if you don’t like his definition, mine or the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s you may just be SOL.

Go stand in the corner until I have time to hurt you. Although, if you put him up as one of the great songwriters....

I never heard that. I’ll have to find that, thanks. Stuff like this should be what the internet is for.

If I really wanted to start a fight I would have tried to include Nina Simone and Dianna Krall even though I know that they’re both Jazz vocalists. One of my pet peeves is in discussions like this some troll will try to include something that has no basis in the criteria. There are any number of phenomenal singers out there who definitely aren’t Rock & Roll. Dolly Parton and Crystal Gayle spring to mind.

If you want to put any of those ladies in the mix, more power to you. And if you think of any rappers or hip-hop singers with exceptional voices, include them too. You would have had a better chance talking me down from Aretha Franklin by arguing that she was mainly noted for R&B. I would have fought it. but you would have had at least a fair point.

Has anybody mentioned Art Garfunkle yet? If you want to talk about pure voices, he’s the man. And don’t anybody start on the “that’s not rock” bandwagon. Since Simon and Garfunkle memorabilia is part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame then that’s enough of a ruling for me.

And how are we defining “best”? Janis Joplin and Johnny Cash both had voices that could tear your heart out on a sad song but neither were exactly rich melodious songbirds.

Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Van Morrison. These are just off the top of my head. Amy Winehouse and Miley Cyrus. (god help us)

Plastics

I just got my flu shot for free and was given a $5.00 coupon on top. So, that’s a profit for the day.

He was also a pretty decent actor in things like North Dallas Forty. A movie starring Nick Nolte that was based on the book of the same name by Peter Gent a former football player for the Dallas Cowboys. The book was a tell all about that organization. Davis’ character was a lightly disguised version of “Dandy” Don Meredith another player who later became an announcer for Monday Night Football.

Is this primarily for chasing characters with high heat out puts like the Human Torch? (See the missle chase in the first FF movie.) Or for tracking characters who are invisible to normal sight? Unfortunately they have different write ups for optimal effectiveness.

I always had the private opinion that Sheldon’s distaste for Babylon 5 was based on the fact that it’s much less a show about Space Stations and Aliens than it was about people. The same “human” interactions that baffled and repulsed him are the very bones of the show. I have no idea if the writers gave this any thought or whether it was just another quirk, but it does have an internal logic that makes sense to me.