wjrii

To be fair, James VI/I was a deeply, deeply weird dude, but he was ahead of the curve on second-hand smoke.

Definitely before they knew, but not before some suspected.

Not exactly, but I did do a lot of research helping very distant relatives with their trees when trying to use DNA and traditional genealogy resources to find my biological family.

Maybe it’s US only? I dunno.

In the US, in high school, and increasingly in lower grades, you can pay for a book that you get at the end of the year that has a headshot of every student and teacher, group photos of all the student organization, summaries of the sports teams’ seasons, nostalgic musings, and various other miscellany. In high school, one of the student organizations is the yearbook staff.

Traditionally, you will all spend some time signing the inside covers of your classmates’ books with inside jokes, inspiring messages, etc. In the long ago, people who kinda liked you might even put their phone number in it.

It used to be a thing in colleges and universities as well, and maybe still is at some, but it’s no longer a traditional part of the experience, probably due to being associated so closely with high school.

Here are some.

On the other hand, Turkey not only still exists, but potentially seems poised for unwanted territorial expansion…

Try Love is Blind Habibi. They do it in Dubai, and the juxtaposition of a mostly American style dating show with international Muslim culture, all in a country that wants to politically have its cake and eat it too, it's a trip. Plus the one couple seems nice.

Yeah, I can't quite explain it, but it works for me, despite being sloppily plotted, historically absurd, and with a supposed lead who's the weakest performer on the show and little more than narrative connective tissue. Jay is fun though, and I was fond of Utkarsh Ambudkar dating back the The Mindy Project.

All of those people think they're not going to fall down, and then they do, with great pneumatic gusto. It's literal caveman humor, and I'm there for it as long as it's not trying to be anything more.

Sometimes people win the buzzer thing and then pass. Why do they pass?!?!?!?!? The survey writing is so lazy and weird that there's always 2-3 reasonable answers and then a bunch of noise from the deeply disturbed or stupid "people" who supposedly provided the responses. Stealing almost never works because the garbage at the bottom of the list is completely unpredictable, and if you go first you get however many answers you uncover plus three more of your own idiotic notions.

since when is “there is a dog” something that you put triumphant music over

Since today, LOL.

The general vibe here is that this Suprman is good and kind, and the trailer is directly tying that notion to triumph. We'll see if the movie bears that out (and if it's just generally any good). Watching the trailer, I assume there's going to be a part either at the beginning or in the middle where a set-piece in the more muted Snyder-y action-y suit is going to go very wrong and provoke a period of reflection, but I assume he'll accept his inherent cheesy goodness by the last act.

That is better, even just as a calculated marketing notion. The trailer didn't actually have the slogan, just very traditionally wholesome Superman imagery, stuff like Supes being saved by a happy superdog, taking a big hit to save a child, hanging out on the Smallville porch with Pa Kent, that sort of thing. There are also at least two costumes in the trailer, and one of them is very old-timey with square-cut trunks.

Seems like Gunn has been tasked with channeling the Christopher Reeve movies and rebooting the Justice League (hopefully not entirely in in a single movie again), and doing all of it with more heart than the Snyderverse take on DC. Tall order, but he has shown he knows how to deliver the Superhero goods that the studios want while playing around on the edges enough to keep the formula fresh, so I might actually watch this one.

We often leave it on as noise now, skip to the end of most of the competitions, and routinely ask each other "who the hell is that?" on the final show where they all come back, but my wife and I have been watching US Big Brother since something like Season 3 or 4. At this point, the formulas are clear and they mostly just re-theme the existing competitions. It does seem like they may have retired "The Racist One" as one of the casting mandates; even the MAGA-coded blonde girl who almost won this past season managed not to say anything to get herself kicked out, though this season ended before the election results made racism okay again.

For shows that I enjoy unironically but can't in good conscience recommend to anyone, my current favorite is the US remake of Ghosts. I am like a moth to flame when it comes to stupid high-concept stuff, but I bail if I don't like it. Despite the very sitcommy gags and plots, I find the cast charming and the out-of-time twist on the usual banter is fun. But yeah, it's still very much a zinger-based sitcom full of stock characters in some form of historical cosplay.

Finally, I giggle like a twelve year old with a fart machine through the opening segment of "Wipeout," where the only question is how hilariously giant foam-covered machinery will clobber people. The only competitive point is who failed the least, and the edit of the episode doesn't even pretend to frame that in any cohesive way, likely so they can rig it. I generally watch something else once they move to the next phase. I don't give a single shit who "wins" and the rest of it is just a traditional physical competition game show with a few pratfalls.