LemmySoloHer

I'm taking a swing here but I'm gonna say it's the episode Homer's Barbershop Quartet. I think this is when Chief Wiggum is watching all the talk show hosts make fun of his attempt at a solo career after getting kicked out of The Be Sharps.

Here's the scene in the movie adaptation with Billy Crudup playing the guy in the comic here. I 100% recommend reading the Watchmen graphic novel (the only graphic novel on Time's Top 100 Novels of All Time list), but definitely worth seeing this part in motion.

They banned Slaughterhouse Five. Just a little information on Kurt Vonnegut's experience in World War II that eventually inspired him to write the book:

He was sent as a POW to Dresden. On February 13, 1945, British and American bombers destroyed the city by dropping high explosives followed by incendiary bombs. The resulting firestorm turned the non-militarized city into an inferno that killed up to 60,000 civilians. Vonnegut and his fellow POWs survived by accident only because they were housed some 60 feet underground in a former meat locker and slaughterhouse. Vonnegut’s job for weeks after the bombing was to gather up and burn the remains of the dead. His experience at Dresden marked him for life and eventually resulted in his literary masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five.

The Florida Department of Education banning one of the most important American novels of all time, that was written by a WWII veteran, from American schools, is the kind of dark humor commentary that you'd find in a Vonnegut book.

It's a big win overall, but some of the scumbags still got something out of it:

Even though scalpers are taking a loss on the Pro, those who banked on people flocking to buy the PS5 disc drive are turning a profit. The Pro is digital only which means you'll need to buy a disc drive if you want to use it to play physical media. It took a while, but the disc drive appears to be sold out everywhere which means people are buying them for inflated prices through resale sites.

Not the worst thing but still annoying, like whatever the opposite of a silver lining is.

Very interesting question, I've thought about this now for a good while so apologies in advance for how long this might get.

We've gotten about 25 years of One Piece so far with 1136 episodes currently. Oda turns 50 in a few months in January. I don't know if it's probable, but I think it's very possible that we are at about the halfway mark. Just based on gut feeling, I'd guess Oda wants to see what else there is in this wonderful story world for at least 20 more years, maybe even 25-30. I'm thinking there could be somewhere around 2000-2500 episodes in total, but also that there is no way Oda could keep up the current pace for the remainder of that.

I'm pretty sure he still lives away from his family during the busiest parts of his working season right now, only going back home during breaks and holidays. I think it's actually possible he could keep that up for the next 15 years until he is 65, but that he'll want to be able to lighten his schedule and live at home with his family after that.

That said, I think he'd still probably love writing this thing even at that point, up until maybe 80. We'd probably see more filler and longer breaks to make up for a reduced pace (a welcome price to pay in order for Oda to live at home) which is why I think episode counts could get higher.

A tangent here, but I remember some celebrity in an interview talked about a party that their friend had every year in order to explain a story they'd been writing since the 4th grade. This person had created a story world when they were a kid that just kept growing for decades even until the present day. They tried to write a book, a screen play, an outline, but every time it was just insane trying to write out thirty years of a growing story universe into anything that made sense. But people got into it when they tried to explain it, so it turned out the best way to tell the story was to just mention a part of it and let people ask questions which then were clarified with the intricate details and history and culture and laws of this world, etc., all at a party every year.

I think Oda is a lot like the person that throws that party every year to try and explain a bit of their vast story world. But, instead of having it build up for decades without record, Oda's story world had been written and published from its very beginning. I think the world of One Piece is part of him and he just keeps imagining it as time goes on. When we daydream about things, whether it's winning the lottery or being able to fly or whatever, I think a lot of Oda's daydreams are the world of One Piece and that it's constantly growing in his imagination.

That's why I think he'll keep going and we'll get a total of 40-55 years of One Piece. I'd even imagine some kind of comic strip style continuation or co-running a spin-off after that because it's that much a part of him. However, it also is true that Akira Toriyama just died at 68. While I realistically think Oda could do this even longer for a total episode count of 3000, I don't know if he'd risk the possibility of not getting to see Luffy reach the final island before he dies. Therefore, my guess is he does a 2000-2500 episode total with maybe bonus stuff set in the same world after in some form.

I definitely want to own the manga in its entirety someday, but don't plan to read the current issues ahead of the anime. I'm a bit of an odd duck but I like watching the adaptation first and reading the manga after for shows like this.

I read the My Hero Academia arc for Season 4 before the anime adapted it and found myself building up expectations and watching them pile up into disappointment when the season finally aired. I probably would have enjoyed it for what it was if I'd watched it first and read the source material after, which has been successful ever since!

I guess it depends?

If you mean in terms of watch exhaustion, I'm totally OK! I did try to watch too much too fast at first, but eventually taking breaks from the show and spreading it out over three years was definitely the smarter way to go in the end. Now that I mostly only watch it during workouts, it's become just another part of a normal healthy routine which helped keep me from going crazy with it (otherwise I'm sure I would have stopped sleeping to binge the Wano arc every night like I did with Impel Down/Marineford and that would have exhausted me). After it all, I'm still super into this story and am very much looking forward to continuing!

If you mean in terms of the massive emotional hits that this series deals out, I'm OK but absolutely impressed at how this story has genuinely brought me to tears more than a few times. Shout out to Bon Clay and Pedro.

If you mean just in general completely outside of anything to do with the show, nah but I keep going anyway. After all, if I have any say in the matter, I want to see that kid become King of the Pirates before I die!

A portable SSD. I need a new external hard drive anyway, so adding that November sales have reduced prices currently and that announced tariffs are designed to raise them very soon, there really is no better logical time for me to get one other than now.

Dang I originally just saw the "9 Episodes" count for the season and thought they were all out and more were on the way, not realizing that only three episodes are released at a time with the next parts just being the other six episodes. Netflix has been big on the "one season split into multiple parts released at different times" that I thought there was going to be Season 2 Part 2, not even realizing it's just a weekly release schedule with three episodes per week. Turns out I'm not watching this as slowly as I thought I was haha.

I spent a few too many seconds thinking that famous actor Matt Dillon is a linux enthusiast before I realized that Matt Dillon the software engineer was who is being mentioned here.

I'm taking it slow this time and have only seen the first two episodes of Season 2. So far it's really doing it for me and reminding me why Season 1 was such a spectacle to see. I actually thought the "music video" parts worked pretty well, mainly because instrumental music seems to drive most of the action to where these felt "earned" but I've only seen those first two episodes so that could end up wearing thin for me too by the fourth time it happens.

At the risk of discussing too much before I get through the rest of the episodes, did you feel the writing just got messy in general or does it seem like they were stretching stuff out in order to split the season up into multiple parts to delay the conclusion?

Ah I think this is it! Now I have "Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?" stuck in my head.