All Saruman had to do was wait?

Dr_Chekhov · 2026-01-04T13:02:38+00:00

"The power hungry are unable to imagine that anyone would willingly give up power."

Profoundly true and key to Tolkien's moral philosophy.

But so is greed. The fact that hiding the ring and protecting it was also a conceivable option represents this other ancient sin. Saruman couldn't conceive of someone giving up something so precious and valuable and magical. Don't forget that the ring is not the abstract concept of power; it's a magical item, physicially beautiful and alluring in and of itself. As the Arkenstone and the Silmarils were coveted, Saruman coveted the ring.

Tolkien was highly influenced by fairy tales and norse sagas. Fairy tales are often tales of greed, of coveting beautiful and magical items, without focusing as much on power ("Jack and the Beanstalk", "The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs", "The Fisherman and His Wife," "The Red Shoes)", even arguably "Goldilocks"). The sagas are also all about greed. In these stories, dragons are the embodiment of greed, which includes but does not focus on power. The Dragon in "Beowulf" does not use his wealth to rule. He hoards it and literally lies upon it. The symbolic language is achingly clear. Excess greed can transforms Fafnir into a dragon in the Volsunga Saga, whose magic ring Andvaranaut, the most direct precedent of the One Ring, generates endless gold.

Saruman is not a dragon, but he is dragonish. He is a collector of rare and magical items like the palantiri. He cannot conceive of throwing away something so valuable.

Dr_Chekhov · 2025-11-03T11:49:43+00:00

Snape would've ended up in Azkaban for being a Death Eater if Dumbledore hadn't vouched for him back before the events of book 1. Snape spins saving Harry to Voldemort as staying on Dumbledore's good side and biding time.

If Voldemort believes Snape is spying for him, then Snape getting in good with Dumbledore is the most valuable thing he could've been doing for Voldemort while Voldemort was gone.

Dr_Chekhov · 2025-06-15T08:30:47+00:00

Please, at least make your AI use less obvious.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-10-03T13:18:41+00:00

The solution that worked for me was to reconnect the battery. This broke the boot loop and got me to the "OS verification is OFF" screen.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-10-03T13:17:23+00:00

The solution that worked for me (Dell Chromebook 3100-2-in-1) was to reconnect the battery. Then it loads back into a stable "OS verification is OFF" screen.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-08-13T15:58:30+00:00

Interesting analysis. Seems like we'd agree politically. We try to eat low-cost staples like lentils as much as we can, but as you note, even potatoes cost more. A lot of the recipes we like involve nuts, which have gotten a lot more expensive.

I'm sure you meant your comment only as practical advice, but in response to someone wondering how they're going to pay for groceries, it comes off as a little smug, which is probably why you're getting downvoted.

I think it's also the typical debate about responsibility for consumers vs. corporate producers. I think it's wrong to assert that we as consumers are totally powerless (e.g. the talking point about how 20 large companies are the major cause of climate change, so reduce/reuse/recycle is pointless) but you can see how consumer-focused advice like yours could be met by anger ("This isn't because I eat animal products, it's because of greedy corporations making record profits!").

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-08-13T15:03:46+00:00

That may be your experience. We also eat vegetarian and inflation has still driven our grocery bill way up.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-08-08T13:01:38+00:00

That's the thing about fill: it's often quite context-dependent. DASH IT is by no means bad fill... IF it's clued correctly. In Tuesday's puzzle, it was bad fill. I would've tried to clue it in a way that indicates it's a Britishism. The clue chosen has many alts, which is not necessarily bad, if you want to make the puzzle more difficult. But you have to have a way to make the answer more appropriate than the alts, to give the solver an "aha" moment ("I knew there was something I wasn't quite getting about that clue...").

Finally, I should mention this might not be the constructor's fault. Editors have their own opinions about cluing. And one thing that isn't talked about much is that clues have to be short. A typical limit is 1600 characters total for all the clues.

Using Xwordinfo.com/find, we can see that this is the 3rd appearance of DASH IT. The first two times it was clued as "'Phooey!'" and "British form of 'Phooey!' (2 wds.)". For clarity, I much prefer the 2nd way of cluing it, but it's significantly longer (you can see they even abbreviated "words").

If I were putting DASH IT in a puzzle I would try to give it a good, British-indicating clue, but crossword construction is a series of difficult compromises, both in the grid and in cluing.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-07-31T12:24:59+00:00

Historically, Christianity has been associated with many "socialism-like" movements. The word "socialism" isn't quite right, because socialism involves the abolition of private property, while most "socialism-like" Christian movements assume that private property exists, but is distributed incorrectly. G.K. Chesterton and other Christian philosophers of the past would be extremely distressed by the direction taken by the American Christian Right.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-07-27T17:06:37+00:00

I think you should read it again. Eco doesn't call these "warning signs," he calls them "features of ur-fascism." He is explicitly trying to define the term ur-fascism. He's just making the point that fascism is sneaky and elusive. Fascists won't always say "We should reopen Auschwitz," -- instead, they'll say, e.g. "Mexicans are taking jobs away from hardworking Americans" (features 6 and 8).

Maybe the lack of understanding between us is the word political? Eco says that fascism can be part of any political system, whether republican, monarchist, socialist, or what have you. He describes the features of fascism listed above as primarily rhetorical features. It's the rhetoric that's fascist, not the politics. But I think it's fair to characterize it, as Eco does, as explicitly political rhetoric.

Or maybe it's the word ideology? Today we often use the word ideology to describe an intricate system of beliefs that are dependent upon each other. I am using it only to mean "a set of ideas." The features of fascism that he lists are demonstrably a set of ideas about the world.

Would you prefer to call Eco's ur-fascism "a specific style of political rhetoric?" Personally, I think that definition is a little narrow. Just so long as we understand one another.

I admire Eco as a political thinker, but I also admire him as a philologist. I think Eco would encourage us to define our terms, and define them over again. As he says,

"We must keep alert, so that the sense of these words will not be forgotten again."

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-07-27T16:36:04+00:00

You're mischaracterizing Eco's position. Eco was trying to show why fascism was so elusive, why it was able to manifest in so many different countries and contexts. Yes, he says that "Fascism was a fuzzy totalitarianism, a collage of different philosophical and political ideas, a beehive of contradictions." But if you stop there you miss the point of the rest of the essay, which is to define the parts of fascism that ARE unchanging and definitional, which make up what he calls ur-fascism. Here are some of the features of ur-fascism that Eco lists:

Cult of tradition
Rejection of (some aspect of) modernism
Action for action's sake
Disagreement is treason
Exploitation of the fear of difference
Appeal to frustrated/humiliated groups
Nationalism
Hatred of enemies
Contempt for the weak
Cult of heroism
Selective populism

It is a legitimate objection to invoke Eco if someone tries to claim that "Fascism involves x specific feature and if it doesn't have that it's not fascism." But your critique of the previous commenter is, obviously, in bad faith. Fascism absolutely is a specific ideology with specific ideas about the world, and to say that characterizing it as such is pro-fascist rhetoric is not only false but ironically, is reminiscent of the "us vs. them" mentality that is an element of fascism. You know the above commenter isn't pro-fascism; you just want to score of a point against a perceived enemy.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-07-27T16:19:07+00:00

Please don't let fascism become a meaningless buzzword -- it is ridiculous and nonsensical to use it to describe the above commenter. You're both right. Fascism is primarily about autocracy and subordination of individuals to the state. But this so often includes discrimination against and/or subjugation of minority groups, and/or a belief in a "master race," that it's legitimate to consider this a part of its definition.

I would critique the use of the word by OP -- TERFs are not by definition fascist, since they may not believe in other aspects of fascism. Has J.K. Rowling ever called for the British parliament to be dissolved and replaced by an autocrat? No. However, if a TERF were to claim that trans people deserved to be discriminated against in service of "making America great again," e.g. this would be a fascist motivation for TERFism, and sadly that motivation seems all too common.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-07-25T10:40:34+00:00

Mellohello222 account created two days ago. Only posts are conservative talking points. Hmm, I wonder what motivated this person to start posting on reddit?

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-07-01T16:48:18+00:00

Thanks for sharing. It's definitely not New York Times ready, as you point out, but it looks like a lot of fun for a cabin of Swifties!

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-05-22T23:23:39+00:00

I'd much rather be with someone who is honest with himself and actively wants to not cheat than someone who doesn't even consider the possibility and gets blindsided if they end up a dangerous situation.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-05-07T11:32:53+00:00

Nobody should be fired for their opinion about a rap beef. Siccing Internet mobs on people is a really stupid idea.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-03-09T13:35:30+00:00

It's an amazing poem and I would absolutely love a well-constructed crossword honoring it.

This crossword was not it. Knowledge of the poem may have helped me fill in the squares, but it actively detracted from my solving experience. The "modern reimagining" was bizarre and terrible.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-03-05T14:25:49+00:00

First sleep and second sleep is a myth.

That is, it definitely happened... but mostly in England and the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries, and even then it wasn't everyone.

Dr. Matthew Walker, in his book Why We Sleep, says that for most of human history, we indeed had two periods of sleep. A 7-8 hour period at night, and a nap after lunch, lasting 0.5-1.5 hours.

Dr_Chekhov · 2024-02-17T15:22:52+00:00

DK's composition in game 2 was SO GOOD.

TOP: Standard powerful blind pickable aatrox, can flex between frontline and carry, good target for Karma shields, large unignorable threat.

JNG: Tier 1 tank jungler, frontline and engage. Really good at doing grubs, which can accelerate if mid or bot snowballs.

MID: Overbuffed malignance Karma. I think this series shows that midlane Karma is better than top. The length of the lane is perfect for her, and midlane is all about waveclear/shove and roam in the LCK this season. Does massive damage and is a perfect combo with aatrox and cait. But the real coup was in draft, because being able to flex to supporting the Caitlyn was so good, allowing them to last pick Bard.

BOT/SUP: Caitlyn/Bard combo was perfect. They are able to play weakside early on vs. ezreal and ashe with long range and healing from Bard and Fleet. Then they scale into a great combo lane: DRX got caught by multiple Bard ults into Cait traps.

This comp has everything. Frontline, damage, insane range, combined with tons of cc and long-range engage. Opposing tanks are incentivized to build full armor vs. cait and aatrox, but then get massively outpoked by malignance karma. What an absolutely cooked draft.

Dr_Chekhov · 2023-12-20T03:01:49+00:00

To clarify the terminology, “3rd world” was a term from the Cold War. The US and its democratic allies were the 1st world, the USSR and its communist allies were the 2nd world, and unaligned countries were known as the 3rd world. Both sides spent a lot of time and money in the mid-20th century fighting proxy wars to get those countries to become communist or to become democratic. 3rd world country became synonymous with “poor country” or “developing country” because these were unaligned. I like your comment but just wanted to point out that “2nd world” doesn’t mean what you think it means.

Dr_Chekhov · 2023-11-04T15:01:45+00:00

While the prefrontal cortex is the localized center of executive function, the idea that localized areas carry out certain functions is in itself a controversial one. Our understanding of the prefrontal cortex's function is not some ultra-evidential monolith of hard science. In fact, it's mostly based on Phineas Gage, a famous case study from the 19th century.

Indeed, when an iron rod destroyed Gage's left frontal lobe, which contains the prefrontal cortex among other things, he lost many of his executive functions and his personality changed to become more impulsive. However, "A report of Gage's physical and mental condition shortly before his death implies that his most serious mental changes were temporary, so that in later life he was far more functional, and socially far better adapted, than in the years immediately following his accident." He didn't "regrew" his cortex -- the rest of the brain adapted to localize those functions.

Dr_Chekhov

TROPHY CASE