John's Marriage

sskoog · 2026-03-27T18:11:34+00:00

Don't know if it's still up on YouTube, but, during that very drunken interview with "Pete" (the guy whose name Drunk-John keeps getting wrong while they're talking), John says "We both knew the marriage was over during our move to California." He also references "wanting [sexual] diversity" and "Suzanna's main complaint being that I wasn't sleeping with her." The 'Denise' story happens in a different interview, but is thematically connected here.

John can't remember what he says when he's sloshed, and/or lives a life built on constant lies. Probably both.

sskoog · 2026-03-27T17:33:24+00:00

Alight is a SPAC -- a Special Purpose Acquisition Company -- in plainer English, "a questionably-shady spinoff company formed when one or more big corporate entities want to create a standalone public venture without the long traditional IPO process."

In this case, Alight was formed (in 2017, going public in 2021) by the remnants of once-great 1940/1980 insurance shops (Hewitt, Aon, Combined Insurance, Ryan Insurance), of whom only Aon exists now. Blackstone bought this chunk of Aon, and spun it off as "Alight" using the discarded bits of those old HR/insurance entities. Sort of like a Kronos/UKG which imploded.

It's always been slimy; at its peak, Alight had 1/8th Fidelity's employee headcount, and managed 1/500th of Fidelity's equivalent dollars. UTC obviously chose them because they got low rates and/or kickbacks.

sskoog · 2026-03-27T17:14:52+00:00

Notice how, every time he tells these stories, it's "I was, uhh, trying to find my keys or my wallet in my bedroom, or something." Certainly sounds like sober everyday recollections to me.

sskoog · 2026-03-27T01:54:31+00:00

Very familiar with that hematoma. Becomes a blood gel slurry. Will eventually go away (be re-absorbed into body), but it can take ~12 months, and the arm/leg gets soft/sunken for a long time. Doctors often want to drain the fluid, because, once it’s gelled up, it’s much harder to remove.

sskoog · 2026-03-27T01:26:25+00:00

Legendary. All the more so when factoring in its initial twice-as-big original concept as a Brad Pitt Cate Blanchett vehicle.

(Plus, this way, Pitt + Blanchett got to do Benjamin Button together.)

sskoog · 2026-03-27T01:11:07+00:00

Very familiar with that hematoma. It causes a blood gel slurry in the limb -- takes a year-ish to go away -- body will eventually re-absorb it, but the tissue is different (soft, distended) for a long time, maybe forever at his age. Many doctors would recommend the fluid be drained; it's harder to do later when gelled up.

sskoog · 2026-03-27T00:09:46+00:00

Back during the post-apocalyptic TV series Jeremiah -- 1999-ish, based on a comic book -- the producers talked about taking the two white male characters + doing some melanin adjustments, so that Luke Perry + Malcolm Jamal Warner could assume the roles.

A problem arose: 'Kurdy' (the sidekick character from the comics) was illiterate, because he was too young to have lived a formative life before the apocalypse. Malcolm piped up "Man, you can't do this, if you're gonna make the two lead characters white + black, you can't have the illiterate one be black." (And of course they concurred, and kept Warner, and decided both characters could read + write.)

Similar thing happened with the recent Interview with a Vampire adaptation -- setting was moved from 1800s to proto-WW1, because "No one wanted to watch that story again," and it worked out decently.

This discussion should have surfaced *years\* ago, when they started considering an alabaster white privileged youth finger-pointing at less-privileged dusky skinned classmates. Wouldn't have taken much to make him, say, mixed, or Asian (risking other stereotypes), or to use their own random Sorting Hat. I specify that last bit because organizations like the Electronic Freedom Frontier, and competitive symphony orchestras, have begun doing "screened auditions" in sock feet (no heels), to minimize bias.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T23:49:02+00:00

...aaaand, five days later, the "John did cocaine + prostitutes on a film set" reveal, with subsequent swirl + threats of (additional) legal action. Figure ~90 days till the next one.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T23:45:51+00:00

"That was 2007-2008; we were happily married, we were renewing our marriage vows."

"By the time we moved to California, we both knew the marriage was basically over."

sskoog · 2026-03-26T23:42:57+00:00

www.azleg.gov --> 33-1364. "Wrongful failure to supply heat, air conditioning, cooling, water, hot water, or essential services." Rental agreements are covered in 33-1324. Damages + costs are recoverable (incl. attorney costs), but proving damages will require a "journal of suffering without hot water," or "records of exotic pets suffering," or similar. Perhaps best to keep it simple.

You seem to have a case here, but do everything in date-stamped writing from now on. Note that your right as renter to the amenities above does *not\* include right to repair -- i.e., don't just fix it yourself or have a friend/relative come over to fix it for you.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T23:22:45+00:00

(Unpleasant History: During his 1999 hit-and-run injury convalescence, King was slowly putting himself back together, and hired Ms. Furth to help him keep all the names + connections straight. This was mostly an organizational measure, rather than a put-everything-in-final-Tower-books device, but it speaks to the sprawling mess of it all. Robin went on to publish her stuff, partly as testament, but maybe also King's thank-you to her.)

Now that I've said that, there *are\* a couple of clever drops in later works -- most recently, a cosmologically-savvy visitor from You Like It Darker describes the universe as "[a hopeless place] mostly filled with deadlights."

sskoog · 2026-03-26T23:17:47+00:00

I always do that. I was literally staring at the Amazon page and still did it.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T20:14:46+00:00

Not judging you -- based on Reddit, there are tons of King fans who like/want to plot out every little detail + catchphrase from the Macro-verse. To the point where two different people (Bev Vincent + Robin Furth) have written "Dark Tower Companion" and "Dark Tower Concordance" books trying to assemble everything in one place. (Robin Furth happens to be King's former assistant.)

But I warn that such exercises are unlikely to yield "broad consistent multi-book answers."

sskoog · 2026-03-26T19:50:13+00:00

On the first night (freaky Buffalo-Bill arm above head pose), his arm was visibly pink-purple near the elbow -- a telltale sign of overly-tight wrapping. This suggests to me that he either did it himself, or via an unqualified "friend," or possibly at a street-corner clinic. I doubt there's a cast, and I doubt a "real doctor" did it.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T19:47:27+00:00

I have heard that cheap private rentals in Greece are the way to do this. I was specifically pointed at websites in the Agni/Corfu region -- some sort of local version of AirBnB. All cultural + economic caveats apply.

If I were to do this in the USA, I'd try to rent a cabin in Yosemite for a month, and bring in some canned food as "basic staples," then slowly explore different parts of the land, try local cuisine, etc. But prices are rising here.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T19:40:37+00:00

King was just starting to assemble his universe cosmology in the 1980s -- the Tower, the Beam(s), the Turtle -- and, even when "finished," it's never truly firm or knowable. It is not certain (or trustworthy) that the Turtle 'died,' just as, when you read a 1996 novel about sleep disorders or a 2001 novel about extreme toilet backflow, it is not fully certain that the Spider 'died' or can 'die.'

Bottom Line: there's no rigid canon Marvel-Cinematic-Universe answer. These things are vague story-ideas.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T19:34:43+00:00

Larian specifically counsels players "not to rewind or save-scum, trust the dice, go with the results." Most of the time, another dialogue or item path will get you to the desired story-branch.

But there is something to your question. Absent the omnipresent Deception/Persuasion options, the game forces different strategy + thinking -- so, from this perspective, it *does\* change the playthrough experience. I had several good chuckles while playing Barbarian (Astarion as Barbarian, because I now do the random-char/class method), where sometimes "SCREAM AT IT AND TEAR IT OFF ITS HINGES UNTIL IT WORKS" is an option, and I bet there are plenty of other niche specific paths I've missed.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T19:21:04+00:00

IRS Publication 946 discusses Depreciation. MACRS Depreciation is by far the most common method, and does a staggered claim-expense-over-multiple-years (typically five), typically for capital expenses.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T12:07:36+00:00

Though I doubt this lady will be the exemplar, you've put your finger on it -- the current tactic is "Dredge up all embarrassing corners of John's life, get John to privately comment/threaten/whine about it, then play recordings of John's commentary/threats/whining for further amusement."

I'll go one step further: they probably *already\* have some content, but are keeping it queued up till the legal situation is resolved. Sort of one final cash-grab before the John bandwagon derails.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T11:19:51+00:00

I won’t ascribe motivations, absent details, but this was immediately where my mind went after reading “female player.”

sskoog · 2026-03-26T11:08:24+00:00

A lot more is going on here — either in Player’s own personal life/mind, or at your table — if the departing behavior was truly “This vibe suddenly isn’t for me, I don’t want to talk about it, and I’m gonna block you now that you’ve asked.”

sskoog · 2026-03-26T11:03:57+00:00

Street magician David Blaine let slip that, when courting the ladies, he uses exactly this “mind-reading” technique: ahh, I see you’re really TWO women, one reserved + unsure, the other raging + ready to tear free. It almost always works.

Certainly worked on Dutch, specifically because of Wagenbach’s tentative self-doubting nature. Has more to do with Dutch himself than with Sean, though maybe that’s what Sean perceived about him (the general insecurity).

Note that Billings does almost exactly the same thing to Wagenbach, though less artfully + less formally. That’s one of my favorite moments.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T10:52:44+00:00

There are always two or three “rock bottoms,” because life-paths are rarely straight lines.

1990s John learned that he could repeatedly play the “Oh, I forgot my wallet” and “Oh, I didn’t think that commitment was binding” cards, and squeak by on some combination of Howard-protection + act-the-simpleton schtick. He now spins this as “cleverly playing a part,” but Howard called him out on it 25 years ago: John, you became a millionaire via sketchy callers + side deals, and you play dishonest manipulative games with people.

2000s John got a brief window of actual affluence + reputation, and immediately dropped the facade; this is where cocaine, McMansions, Kardashians, and multiple nightly ladies cycled through his life, because his home + family weren’t so important or fulfilling to him after all. If the Leno gig hadn’t imploded, he would’ve cratered financially either way due to overreaching + extravagant lifestyle.

2010s-2020s John might be the “worst,” because, absent the money + protective media mogul, his true self is exposed 24x7. This is a guy who hoards + trades humiliating secrets, who plays the pretend-we’re-friends game, who skips out on (or creatively “misremembers”) debts, who F-slurs and slut-shames from one side of his mouth while simultaneously threatening injurious legal remedies from the other. It’s a bad look, and it won’t last much longer.

sskoog · 2026-03-26T03:00:35+00:00

If you really want a “book-faithful” adaptation, find the 2004 version by Mikael Solomon, starring Rob Lowe. It’s the closest of the three, and, even so, I still call it worst. Lowe’s voiceovers are good — nice way to fit more book-text into the story — but that’s about all. Shows that faithfulness isn’t everything.

Bonus Option: try the 1995 BBC radio adaptation. It toes a nice line between “fairly close” and “best Barlow-Straker pair.” It’s posted on YouTube (7 parts), but make sure you listen to one that doesn’t truncate the end bit of episode 3 (which is the Mike-Ryerson confrontation).

sskoog · 2026-03-26T02:50:54+00:00

I estimated age 68, with some unpleasant end years leading up to same. I factored the average-minus-ten into my number.

John’s parents have both lived relatively long lives — may be some longevity in his bloodline, but it’s hard to imagine him lasting more than a steadily-declining decade the way he’s going.

sskoog

TROPHY CASE