OFF TOPIC Cafe: "The Pensieve" [ Edited ]

[Jules934]

I was looking at my profile today and noticed a "Relative Dating" option -- that's prob not the title, but it's s'thing like that -- you'll recognize it if you see it.  (Can't find it again.  S'times I think the profile page is s'thing like the RoR, but I haven't found the right incantation yet.  LOL)

Anyway, it was selected.  Wondering what would happen, I unselected it.  When I got back the the boards, the posting dates/times were back.  The '"Yesterday PM"s, "2 Hours Ago"s, etc were gone. 

I like it better this way.  If you would too, there's hope.

Thought you'd wanna know.

[Jules934]

I just realized --

it's Banned Book Week

Read some Harry Potter tonite

[KathyS]

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Psychee wrote:

Finished it last night, and am very surprised to not find any discussion about it on the B & N boards yet.  It was un-put-downable, keeping me on the edge of my seat, from cover to cover.

More than that, though, I really appreciated the theme of the book.  Whereas "The Da Vinci Code" fueled conspiracy theories, "The Lost Symbol" has addressed a popular conspiracy theory about the Masons by taking the wind out of its sails. 

In these days, it is typical of thrillers to leave the reader a bit more paranoid about the world.  But this book is different.  The last word in it is "hope" and that is exactly the emotion I was left with as I completed the volume. 

Ron Howard ought to have fun making a movie out of this, and Washington D.C. is likely to have a whole new bunch of tourists looking for hidden symbols in our nation's capital.

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 I finished the book.  So much was said that I wanted to address....so much left unsaid in this story...littered with redundant dialogue and descriptive remarks running rampant...at least a hundred pages could have been edited out of this book.  I had to skim through some of it....or I'd fall asleep. 

I hate to rag on Dan Brown's writing, since I have taken efforts in defending his novels for years....and I was the one who defended him when Bethanne stomped on him in her blog....but with this one, with many thoughts in this book which could have become great, were left in a dead echo....the drive and motivation was missing for me.  Brown took this time, in his character, Langdon,  defending and straightening out his seemingly public past errors.  It was more than a white wash of his DaVC.

We were left with the word "hope", where I was looking for the greatest word, gift of all, which is "love".  The real meaning of what is buried, and needs to be resurrected.

[Kat-NE]

I just finished a really good book called "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss.  I wouldn't read it unless you are ready to wait awhile for the sequel though.  I don't know what I'll do now!!  Just kidding.

[Psychee]

I hate waiting for sequels.  It drives me nuts!

[Kat-NE]

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Psychee wrote:

I hate waiting for sequels.  It drives me nuts!

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Psychee wrote:

I hate waiting for sequels.  It drives me nuts!

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Well the one I'm waiting on had a release date of May 2025, so here I sit, only 15 years to go.

[Psychee]

Oh, my lord.  I'll be dead by then!   But then again, since I'm old enough to have seen the first Star Wars movies when they first came out, I also thought I'd be dead before the series was completed, and they are done making them now.  All they had to do was cancel was the last three movies! 

Why is this author telling folks she can't write a sequel in less than 15 years, Kat-NE?   That sounds really extreme.

[Jules934]

Well, I supposr I shouldn't mention JKR saying she might be finished with the "Scottish Book" in 10 years or so.  Add a years of so for publication and distribution..............    No, I shouldn't mention that.  I won't.

By the way, how long is one of JKR's "or so"s?

[TiggerBear]

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Kat-NE wrote:

I just finished a really good book called "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss.  I wouldn't read it unless you are ready to wait awhile for the sequel though.  I don't know what I'll do now!!  Just kidding.

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Well it is the best piece of high fantasy in the last decade. Missing out just cause the author's such a perfectionist he's dragging on the sequel would be a shame.

[Kat-NE]

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TiggerBear wrote:

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Kat-NE wrote:

I just finished a really good book called "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss.  I wouldn't read it unless you are ready to wait awhile for the sequel though.  I don't know what I'll do now!!  Just kidding.

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Well it is the best piece of high fantasy in the last decade. Missing out just cause the author's such a perfectionist he's dragging on the sequel would be a shame.

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Oh, I'm still going to read it.  The author put on his blog why there is no specific date set for it and I get that.  It's just, if it a really long time, like a year, I'll have to read the first one again.  I have a problem where I always have to start at the beginning when I read anything in a series, even if I've already read them.  Kind of like what I had to do with Harry Potter, start over every time a new book came out.  I would rather avoid that and read them over again once they are all done.

[TiggerBear]

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Kat-NE wrote:

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TiggerBear wrote:

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Kat-NE wrote:

I just finished a really good book called "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss.  I wouldn't read it unless you are ready to wait awhile for the sequel though.  I don't know what I'll do now!!  Just kidding.

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Well it is the best piece of high fantasy in the last decade. Missing out just cause the author's such a perfectionist he's dragging on the sequel would be a shame.

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Oh, I'm still going to read it.  The author put on his blog why there is no specific date set for it and I get that.  It's just, if it a really long time, like a year, I'll have to read the first one again.  I have a problem where I always have to start at the beginning when I read anything in a series, even if I've already read them.  Kind of like what I had to do with Harry Potter, start over every time a new book came out.  I would rather avoid that and read them over again once they are all done.

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(chuckle) Me too. Get a little hard after 8 in a series though. I tend to just read the 4 before the new one.

[Thomas_T]

Name of the Wind is an amazing book... but the 2025 date is just a place holder.... hopefully it will be out next year... I read it when it first came out in hardcover, so I have been waiting awhile.

Edit: They changed my user name! Eeeek... (This is ShadowCougar!)

[Jules934]

I heard something on the news and am not sure I got it right.  Have any of you heard about this.....

It was on the Chicago PBS TV station "Channel 11"  WTTW.  They do a news feed from the BBC

The BBC was saying that they had information that, a few years ago -- prop at the height of HP --  JKR  had been considered for the US Medal of Freedom (the former Congressional Medal of Honor") but did not recieve it because officials  in Bush's cabinet ''said she was encouraging the practice of witchcraft.

I hadn't heard a'thing about this b4, but don't think that, if she got as far as actually being considered, "encouraging the practice of witchcraft" wouldn't be a sufficient reason to turn her down.

Anyone?

[Psychee]

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Jules934 wrote:

...The BBC was saying that they had information that, a few years ago -- prop at the height of HP --  JKR  had been considered for the US Medal of Freedom (the former Congressional Medal of Honor") but did not recieve it because officials  in Bush's cabinet ''said she was encouraging the practice of witchcraft.

I hadn't heard a'thing about this b4, but don't think that, if she got as far as actually being considered, "encouraging the practice of witchcraft" wouldn't be a sufficient reason to turn her down.

Anyone?

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Yes, I read that, too, from a reliable source.  I believe it.   The kinds of people who would not let their kids read the Harry Potter books for "witchcraft" reasons are a very small but very LOUD minority.  I can easily see the Bush Administration foregoing giving JKR the medal simply because these people would ruin what should be a nice ceremony.  Also, many of these same people are part of the "moral majority" group that put him in office to begin with.

I'll bet Laura Bush gave him a hard time about it, though!

JKR might get a better break from Obama who read all of the Harry Potter books with his children and liked them.  They give out this award once a year so we shall see if he feels strong enough about her contribution to deal with the fundamentalist aftermath.   There's no expiration date -- he could offer it to her any year that he is still President.

[Jules934]

Would you, by any chance, remember where you read that?

[Psychee]

I probably read it here.

[Thomas_T]

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Jules934 wrote:

The BBC was saying that they had information that, a few years ago -- prop at the height of HP --  JKR  had been considered for the US Medal of Freedom (the former Congressional Medal of Honor") but did not recieve it because officials  in Bush's cabinet ''said she was encouraging the practice of witchcraft.

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Just as A note. (Sorry I am a wee bit of a know it all) the Medal of Freedom is not the former Medal of Honor. The Presidental Medal of Freedom is the highest civilan honor awarded in the US and the Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest military honor awarded in the US.

ShadowCougar

[Jules934]

Hey, Tom, thanks for the clarification.  Aren't we at least a tiny bit know-it-alls?  LoL LoL

Know where I could look to find more on the medal? ....  Anything about the JKR situation?       I'm finding this interesting.

[agnijay]

Wait, but if it is the highest CIVILIAN honor, does that mean it can go to any creature is a human or who has once been a human? I'd think they'd reserve that privelage for a US citizen, but I guess I'm wrong.

[Psychee]

From Wikipedia:

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is a decoration bestowed by the President of the United States and is, along with the equivalent Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress, the highest civilian award in the U.S. It recognizes those individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." The award is not limited to U.S. citizens and, while it is a civilian award, it can also be awarded to military personnel and worn on the uniform.