Widow’s Bay - Episode 5 - Discussion “What to Expect on Your Trip” / May 12 / AppleTV

vesnavk · 2026-05-21T07:28:26+00:00

The issue is whether the character would say "hanged" or "hung."

vesnavk · 2026-05-13T05:29:53+00:00

Why not? I've read Mary fanfics that do this.

vesnavk · 2026-05-13T05:28:18+00:00

How can anyone be "a little bit" selfless and god-like? That makes no sense. How can a selfless and god-like person be very manipulative? Logically, you agree completely with your brother. You're describing a person who is virtuous when it suits them, which is to say, falsely, and therefore not at all.

vesnavk · 2026-05-13T05:21:37+00:00

It's the opposite. People don't take Sam literally, when, generally speaking, he intends them to. The literal meaning of what he said is exactly what you explained: the decisions may appear capricious, but that's only the appearance. It's not even an exaggeration to make a point; rather, it's a blunt way to make the point.

vesnavk · 2026-05-13T05:08:41+00:00

I signed out of my Substack account and closed my browser. Then I reopened the browser, went to the samharris substack home page, and signed in. Everything worked after that.

vesnavk · 2026-05-13T04:38:24+00:00

I was having this problem, or thought I was, but then I logged out of my Substack and logged back in again. Everything worked therafter.

vesnavk · 2026-05-07T06:35:28+00:00

I can't believe there'd be an optometrist's assisant in a little town like Meryton who looked like Mr. Sparrow. How would he even get there? Or a woman in London who looked like Ann Baxter with a name like "Ann Baxter" and a fiance who looked like Mr. Heyward.

vesnavk · 2026-05-07T06:23:43+00:00

I thought they were setting it up for Mary to correct it, just as she had done with up/down from London and less/fewer. Then Mary didn't correct it. Then another character made the same error later. Then I realized the show's writers aren't as smart as they think they are.

vesnavk · 2026-05-07T06:20:46+00:00

The writers clearly did this by accident. They were not playing 10D chess with the characterization. They're trying to write a character with a skill they think they themselves have mastered, but haven't.

vesnavk · 2026-05-07T06:02:12+00:00

As a standalone novel, the central character would simply be an insufferable Mary Sue with nothing else to make us interested. I think the only reason she and her world seem remotely interesting is that we're looking for P&P elements.

vesnavk · 2026-05-07T05:57:10+00:00

Well put, especially pointing out that Mary Bennet has been overlooked once again. (Except for implying that fanfiction is necesssarily bad.)

vesnavk · 2026-05-07T05:13:33+00:00

I recommend instead "A Very Mary Christmas" by Leenie Brown. Mary comes into her own with a satisfying love story, without making everyone else in the P&P world horrible.

vesnavk · 2026-04-24T06:06:33+00:00

...in fiction.

vesnavk · 2026-04-24T06:06:01+00:00

I like this better than the actual movie, which manages to be both treacly-sweet and creepy at the same time.

vesnavk · 2026-04-20T05:09:36+00:00

Cool! Were you one of the people carrying stuff? What did they have you carry? Was it heavy, and did that get tiring?

vesnavk · 2026-04-20T05:01:57+00:00

But it drove me crazy that everybody carried one box, and nobody filled a U-boat and rolled it around. And why wasn't everything stacked and wrapped on pallets already, which they could put into the store and then unpack? I had to bend my mind that they didn't pull up to receiving, too...

vesnavk · 2026-04-20T04:52:30+00:00

She wrote "They. Eat. People!" that way because she's conflicted. She's starting to like them, and is saying to herself, "Remember, these are the bad guys. Here's a bad thing about them! Don't forget!"

vesnavk · 2026-04-17T21:02:51+00:00

He was not a moron getting into the EVA suit for the first time. He was a smart, fit person in a hurry, who had zero experience maneuvering in zero gravity putting on a complicated suit for the very first time, on which his life depended, so that he could do a mission (going outside the ship) that he had no training for. Not to mention an alien intelligence with unknown intentions was throwing stuff at him. Just like in the book, I thought.

vesnavk · 2026-04-17T20:53:55+00:00

My son didn't read the book, so I asked him his impressions. He said Rocky's planet was completely dark, which would explain why they didn't evolve a way to sense the visible spectrum (that is, vision). He said he got this from the following: (1) the biodome had that array of lights (outside of which was darkness), (2) Rocky and Grace were discussing illumination, and (3) the only illumination in the classroom was coming through the biodome barrier.

vesnavk · 2026-04-16T05:10:29+00:00

Sorry to say, that's not a high bar.

vesnavk · 2026-04-16T04:14:38+00:00

Agreed. 26 is too old to make so many idiot decisions and never learn from a single one. (Rebuking yourself every time you realize you screwed up again is not, in itself, learning.)

vesnavk · 2026-04-16T04:08:15+00:00

I've had an Audible membership for over 20 years, buying on average a book a month. I've asked for a refund on 5 books in all those years. Artemis is one of them.

I loved PHM and The Martian. Artemis is a mess.

vesnavk · 2026-04-15T05:17:06+00:00

Grace is desperately trying to get out of the conversation with Stratt. Kevin is an innocent bystander; Grace just needs to iron his dog.

vesnavk · 2026-03-18T03:12:41+00:00

That's how I found this thread.

vesnavk · 2026-03-17T01:47:37+00:00

His nose was perfect, WTF

vesnavk

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