Lawnmower Boy

They have public schools in Mexico now?

Late to the party, but I enjoyed it, and now understand why it made Hermit . . . Wait. Was I following the conversation correctly?

Speaking of, three prices from April 1949: Charter air holiday flight round trip flight to the island of Madeira and back to Britain: £85, or a hair above $420; Brand new 1949 Packard with all the trimmings: $2450; Average house price: $14,500; Average wage: $3600. After closely examining these figures from my reading, I have come to the only possible conclusion: Things cost different amounts at different times. It's a funny old world. But I wouldn't mind it if the average house still cost four years average salary.

Yay! I survived the 22 hour day off, and now get to enjoy the 53 hour day off! Good thing that science has found that a constantly varying sleep schedule is the key to longevity, clarity of thought and typing witonboni4qo

Professor Paradigm is upset at reality. Why don't people understand that this isn't the way things are supposed to be? Art! Art is the mirror. Here are some great installations to try in your city. i) Professor Paradigm is upset about commuting. Driving too and from work takes up far too much time in people's lives. It's ridiculous, and it can't go on. So let's give this futility some meaning! Crack all those onboard computers, take control of the cars, and turn evening drivetime into a ballet that can be viewed from orbit. You'll probably need a few drastic measures like driving a few columns of cars into oncoming traffic and such, but the sacrifices are well worth it. ii) Speaking of long commutes Professor Paradigm is upset about all those speculator-owned, vacant homes downtown. Homes are for people! And there are powers . . . Which is how those leafy inner suburbs of your city came to be overrun by animated homes, chasing people down the street and . . . I guess not exactly eating them. In fact, 4067 Maple Street's got two people stuffed headfirst in two cute north-facing dormers .(Jennie Oruma and Kyle Schwarzberger. You can tell because Jen was so happy about her black flats that she posted them on Instagram. That's how you can tell that the screaming and the waving feet are Jennie. Kyle's just wearing trainers, but he's screaming, too, so there's that.) Tudor-inspired has heard that "first comes marriage," so now it's chasing Reverend McAlister. Dan is booting it down the street as fast as he can, but Tudor-inspireds are pretty lively houses as these things go. (It's got good lines, not like that blocky modernist down the block that's given up on families and is just trying to get a few seniors. Don't let the walker fool you. Mrs. Pallavicini is spry! Well, spryer than a glass-and-concrete house with exposed beams. Once again, Modernist House curses its own timely fashionableness. It'll never have a family.) Can your team stop Tudor-inspired before it shoves the Rev in the kitchen window and goes looking for a baby carriage? Maybe. But you probably want to avoid that big brownstone over there. It's heard that there's a superteam looking for a new home . . .

Since this one is slipping down the lists, I thought I'd pop in and mention how much I like the title. 'Dearthwood" is cool. I will also plug Selby's Winter Road, which plays with the idea of a protagonist going into a dearthwood and trying to fix it, although perhaps not delivering completely.

Explosives are always the answer to removing eyesores.

We do! Questions like: --With all the advances in technology, why does belly button lint still happen? --Who likes the juice you squeeze out of cans of tuna as much as cats? --Does anyone else think that Oreo cookies are actually kinda cardboard-y? --Who writes this stuff?

The list of awesome people!

Just do what I do! Relentlessly harass Hermit while making fun of his favourite superhero. It's gonna work soon. I can feel it!

Amateur. Applying my deciphering technique, I read, "Send all your money to Lawnmower Boy, 213 Stevens Street, Vancouver, Canada. P.S. Aquaman sucks."

"Valonqar" does mean "younger brother."

Okay. Now, I dropped out of Game of Thrones before last season. because the Battle of the Bastards annoyed me and I only have so much time for pop culture. That being said, the whole dead/winter versus the living thing doesn't have to be dropped just because the plot is turning towards a resolution of "who sits on the Iron Throne." What makes Old Nan's story about the Night King so creepy is that he's a Lord Commander of the Night's Watch who is seduced over to the side of Death by a sexy, sexy zombie. Winter/Death has already had a huge win here. The Wall is gone, the Night Watch is all but disbanded, hunger and winter stalk the land, the objectively pro-End-of-Everything candidate already sits on the Iron Throne. The only thing lost is a living-dead revenant raised by the Children of the Forest in an ill-judged necromantic exercise in making bargains with eldritch forces. As it happens, said objectively pro-Death candidate is being up by two creepy necromancers, one of whom has raise a living dead revenant in an exercise in . . . . Do the math here, people! I'm not the writer, and I don't have the fan's fan's credit to argue that this is where the narrative is going. I have no idea if that's where it's going. But it does use existing plot elements to bring everything together to a satisfying moment when Jaime runs Cersei through, and the corpse's eyes snap open --blue.

MCU Captain America throws with Thor. I wouldn't be afraid of making him Speed 8.

So I went to see Endgame rather earlier in its run than is my usual wont, because people kept trying to spoil it on the Internet, which I need to mention just because I know it's all Aquaman's fault somehow. Speaking of spoilers, the whole thread is under a spoiler tag so I'm not going to bother. Sorry for those who clicked anyway. Now for Deep Thoughts With A Guest Host Because Jack Handy Isn't Available: --I love* the development of Nebula's role in a way that I haven't always loved the big movie heel turns. (Lookin' at you, Jennifer Lawrence. Shoulda pushed for a chance to play Tabitha Smith in the Nextwave movie that would blow this Avengers stuff out of the water, you listen to me, MCU.) --At least for the moment, I'm willing to buy that Captain Marvel has one heck of a move through and is very sturdy. Good for taking out spaceships, maybe not as good at mowing down mooks. --I assume that Captain America's Excellent Adventure is going to turn out to be long enough and elaborate enough to answer all the questions. All the questions. Also, it will be a great way to funnel a gazillion dollars into Chris Evans' pocket if he doesn't turn out to be the next Olivier. --Lay off Dad Body Thor, everybody. PTSD. Look it up. Also, it's so sweet that he's not over Jane Foster. I wouldn't be either, in the unlikely event that I fell for her while trying to get Darcy's phone number. --Thought the Grrl power thing was overdone. --Read some guy complaining about how Valkyrie got hold of Aragorn. Had to restrain myself from jumping down the Intertubes to strangle him into silence before the Russos took it back. --Morgan too old, Cassie too old? Not sure these things compute. Also, Clint is a bad, bad Dad who can't even remember his own daughter's name. I know that's spelled "Lila," but it's pronounced K-A-T-I-E. --Rocket needs to be in charge of everything. --Very disappointed that Hulk didn't get to punch it up with Thanos and show that he really is the strongest one there is, but I have to bear in mind that that's not the real Hulk. --I'm glad I went to see this in 3D so that I could contribute to what must be a big enough cameo budget to float Hollywood down to the Pacific on a tidal wave of cash. --Someone else has mentioned that Jarvis was the only TV MCU guy. Too bad, as I would have preferred the Agent Carter Howard Stark, but he was, indeed, most worthy. --Anyone who thinks that it's a million-to-one chance that a rat happened to walk on any particular flat surface in that warehouse has never actually dealt with a rat infestation. Yuck yuck yuck. The amazing thing is that it took five years. --Captain America being worthy was the biggest of the spoilers I encountered this weekend. Given how often it was floated, I was actually a bit sad that there wasn't someone a bit more out of left field who could have done the wielding. Perhaps someone with a bad habit of shouting her attacks out loud? "Terawatt X-ray laser --I mean, magic hammer smitey attack!" Especially if Captain America told her to go back to the kitchen and make dinner a moment before.** *Love love love love: "This is the guy? Seriously?" "Your choices were him or a walking tree."# **Yes, yes, a bit out of character, but he's under stress, you know? Seriously, Hollywood, call me. Nextwave is gold. #Loved. She even managed to get off one of her signature "Yeah, okay, lady [backs away slowly]" moments that I would quote verbatim if I could remember the actual line.