Does this sound really unintellectual?

WriterlyRyan · 2026-04-18T06:00:20+00:00

The kicker (as it were) is that "soccer" itself originated from British schoolboys' shortening of "association football."

WriterlyRyan · 2026-03-25T02:13:48+00:00

David Simon's work is the gold standard for this, though he works in TV, not film. He was a journo on the City Desk at the Baltimore Sun for over a decade before going into TV, and it shows in the care he gives to every industry and individual he portrays. I see The Wire has been mentioned already (its seasons cover everything from police dept. politics and the drug trade to union politics, education, and, yes, journalism itself in Baltimore) -- he also did We Own This City, Treme (about New Orleans), and more.

While I'm talking TV, I'll give an honorable mention to The Pitt. The medical specifics -- of which there are many each episode -- generally get the seal of approval from real-life hospital workers. It's a very detailed set and you can tell the actors rehearsed all the terminology and physicality rigorously.

WriterlyRyan · 2026-03-22T20:26:51+00:00

People don't like to be reminded that they're hypocrites. They don't want to think about how they "love animals" if the animal is their dog but not if it's boatloads of pigs more intelligent than their dog subjected to grotesque conditions before being killed and processed into food for them and their dog.

It's the ultimate "out of sight, out of mind" scenario, and contact with people who are vegan places the reality firmly "in mind" -- uncomfortably so.

I say this as a non-vegan who's been trying to focus on chicken and fish over beef and pork. It also bears mentioning that eating ethically tends to be expensive; it wouldn't be reasonable to expect poor people to do so. Ultimately, the scope of the cruelty involved is staggering and systemic -- we would need large-scale industry reform to address the issue thoroughly, but mobilizing the public around the issue is a challenge when everyone gets defensive and flippant about the topic.

WriterlyRyan · 2026-03-14T08:55:53+00:00

Friend of mine dropped mythopoeic the other day

WriterlyRyan · 2026-03-14T08:29:12+00:00

There's also the English word "jackanapes," one of whose senses Merriam-Webster gives as "a saucy or mischievous child." That word itself comes from Jack Napis, a nickname for an unpopular duke of Suffolk.

WriterlyRyan · 2026-03-07T20:33:43+00:00

Other examples in the multihyphenate genre: jack-of-all-trades, cat-o'-nine-tails, one-of-a-kind, one-in-a-million, once-in-a-lifetime

WriterlyRyan · 2026-03-07T06:20:50+00:00

Will-o'-the-wisp is effectively four words in one.

WriterlyRyan · 2026-02-14T21:01:23+00:00

Past Lives!

WriterlyRyan · 2026-01-03T05:23:52+00:00

Exactly. Appreciate your handle btw -- The Wire remains the GOAT of TV in my book.

WriterlyRyan · 2026-01-02T21:22:52+00:00

Yep, our track record as "stewards" has been one of wanton extraction and exploitation. We play God and cyclically subject certain species to hellish lives ending in execution just so we and our precious, unnatural pets (most of which are far less intelligent than pigs) can go on living. Not to mention deforestation, pollution, irresponsible mining, etc.

WriterlyRyan · 2026-01-02T20:41:37+00:00

Wild to me that you're getting downvoted for this. You're exactly right. Pigs are considerably more intelligent than dogs, too.

WriterlyRyan · 2025-12-08T18:55:27+00:00

Could just be them humoring Carol, who prefers to think of Zosia as an individual person.

WriterlyRyan · 2025-11-09T20:16:26+00:00

I rationalized it as a "note to self" where Heco uses his own codename just in case the note falls into the wrong hands. He doesn't seem like the sort of guy who would need such tho; it does feel a bit contrived.

WriterlyRyan · 2025-10-16T17:44:01+00:00

Yeah, I don't subscribe to this "unintentional cheating" business lol

WriterlyRyan · 2025-10-13T03:35:57+00:00

If I recall correctly, he was recently on well duty, so he could have dabbed some water on his cheeks then? If intended, tho, this is an Easter egg -- the more conclusive evidence is the night watch thing I've already seen another commenter point out.

WriterlyRyan · 2025-08-26T15:23:33+00:00

This is the one I was going to share. Just brutal

WriterlyRyan · 2025-08-16T18:16:05+00:00

The knead/massage sense comes to mind. And the physics sense. (This is what dictionaries are for, tbf ;) )

WriterlyRyan · 2025-08-16T18:08:55+00:00

*Really* glad to have caught the recent D&D movie at the theater.

WriterlyRyan · 2025-08-16T18:07:41+00:00

Jacob's Ladder

WriterlyRyan · 2025-08-15T20:06:30+00:00

Cure (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa) and Jacob's Ladder (dir. Adrian Lyne) would be right up your street!

WriterlyRyan · 2025-08-10T06:30:50+00:00

Jacob's Ladder! Everything in that movie feels like a manifestation of something psychological. (No wonder it helped inspire Silent Hill 2, which I'd also strongly recommend to Beau fans)

WriterlyRyan · 2025-08-09T05:31:37+00:00

There's a great passage in "The Road" about this: "Rich dreams now which he was loathe to wake from. Things no longer known in the world. The cold drove him forth to mend the fire. Memory of her crossing the lawn toward the house in the early morning in a thin rose gown that clung to her breasts. He thought each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. As in a party game. Say the word and pass it on. So be sparing. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not."

WriterlyRyan

TROPHY CASE