3x09, "The Small Dark Movie of Your Life"

[MadGastronomer]

I can't remember where I read it now, but I remember something about a New England saying along the lines of "if the serving girl hasn't tried to kill you by February she has no spine at all." Any of you East Coasters ever heard that? It would be pretty old, from the colonial era.

I dunno about New England, but that saying appears in American Gods, in whatever town it is that Hinzelmann lives in, which I sort of think is Michigan, but might be either Wisconsin or Minnesota.

[eschatonic]

I can't remember where I read it now, but I remember something about a New England saying along the lines of "if the serving girl hasn't tried to kill you by February she has no spine at all." Any of you East Coasters ever heard that? It would be pretty old, from the colonial era.

I dunno about New England, but that saying appears in American Gods, in whatever town it is that Hinzelmann lives in, which I sort of think is Michigan, but might be either Wisconsin or Minnesota.

Is that what it was? sheesh, I thought it was something historical. Oh well.

[MadGastronomer]

Doesn't mean it's NOT historical, just means Gaiman used it. The poem from "The Sound of Her Wings" is four thousand years old*, but people keep attributing it to him.




*Death is before me today:
  like the recovery of a sick man,
  like going forth into a garden after sickness.
Death is before me today:
  like the odor of myrrh,
  like sitting under a sail in a good wind.
Death is before me today:
  like the course of a stream;
  like the return of a man from the war-galley to his house.
Death is before me today:
  like the home that a man longs to see,
  after years spent as a captive.

            --From "Dialogue of a Misanthrope with His Soul" (ca 2000 BC), now called "Dispute between a man and his Ba," from a papyrus of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt.

[Emma Bull]

It's harder because you've been cold for a long time, and it seems like the cold is sinking into your bones, and you forget what being warm feels like, and after a while you even forget there's a word for it... {snip} ...Your Winter May Vary.

Dood, way ta make a person reconsider that whole relocation idea! 

[Lioness]

It's harder because you've been cold for a long time, and it seems like the cold is sinking into your bones, and you forget what being warm feels like, and after a while you even forget there's a word for it... {snip} ...Your Winter May Vary.

Dood, way ta make a person reconsider that whole relocation idea! 

Oops.

Heh.

Yeah, but you know the upsides to it, too.

[CJ]

To vouch for the colder climates, let me note that when you're naked and in front of a fan and still sweating, there's not much you can do. And most places frown on people naked in public. But in the winter, you can put on more layers and drink warm things, and nobody's going to be upset if you're wearing six layers of clothing in public.

Plus there's the beauty of the transitional seasons.

[jennythe_reader]

To vouch for the colder climates, let me note that when you're naked and in front of a fan and still sweating, there's not much you can do. And most places frown on people naked in public. But in the winter, you can put on more layers and drink warm things, and nobody's going to be upset if you're wearing six layers of clothing in public.

Plus there's the beauty of the transitional seasons.

That's exactly argument I always use.

As much as I hate Northern winters, I hate Southern summers more. (For USA values of Northern and Southern.)

[eschatonic]

To vouch for the colder climates, let me note that when you're naked and in front of a fan and still sweating, there's not much you can do. And most places frown on people naked in public. But in the winter, you can put on more layers and drink warm things, and nobody's going to be upset if you're wearing six layers of clothing in public.

Plus there's the beauty of the transitional seasons.

100% disagree. I'd rather be hot and sweaty* than have to wear all those uncomfortable layers and still be cold enough to shiver. The transitional seasons are indeed beautiful, and the snow is beautiful too. But nothing makes up for being cold all the damn time for months.

*this includes Southeast Asian values of hot and sweaty.

[Elizabeth Bear]

I have lived in New England and Las Vegas. Cold is better than hot, for this Bear.

[DavidG]

when you're naked and in front of a fan and still sweating

Initially assuming the other kind of fan really changes the way you interpret that...

[glinda_w]

I have lived in New England and Las Vegas. Cold is better than hot, for this Bear.

Yes. I can adapt for cold (as long as I can keep my living space warm enough for me to function; sweaters are all very well, but too-cold hands = can't play with beads. Or the piano or harp.)

To vouch for the colder climates, let me note that when you're naked and in front of a fan and still sweating, there's not much you can do. And most places frown on people naked in public. But in the winter, you can put on more layers and drink warm things, and nobody's going to be upset if you're wearing six layers of clothing in public.

True, that. Those two years I lived on Oahu? Bleah.

Plus there's the beauty of the transitional seasons.

I miss upstate NY/northern Pennsylvania autumns. The Seattle area is fine, and I really don't mind the grey and rain all that much, but... I miss that crispness in the air, and the hillsides blazing with color, the patchwork of fields and woodlots...

[jimsmyth]

Fire.  Fire is the secret of survival in the Maine winter.

(Apply with care.  Not to be taken internally, unless you're being metaphorical.)

[Jedikalos]

Man: the last thing I read was "Any Other Day," which I really loved (it made me feel happy). And then I come back after a long while and read this: WHAMMO! I had a funny thought as I was reading through the comments on this and found Bear saying this:

"And the fact that I love these people at least as much as everybody else doesn't actually change that. It makes me miss them a hell of a lot, and mourn them in funny ways.

But it doesn't mean I won't kill them if it's what the story needs."

And I thought, you know, if God were real, that is just what God would say, too, about our lives. And that is why I would be a rebel against God. Now God doesn't exist, as we all know: but E. Bear! What the hell! You and your fellow creators are real! Why you doing this to us? Because you are creators, you artists, you. The beauty and the terror must be there both. (And by the way, who is Zeus up there with you folks? Who finally decided to put the lightning down on Daphne--or had the last word?).

Anyway, you folks can sure write. Y'all got this grown man shedding a few tears for his fictional friends. But I'll tell you, putting up "Any Other Day"  up close to this one was a divinely cruel blow.

[MadGastronomer]

Now God doesn't exist, as we all know

No, that is most certainly not something "we all" know. I suggest you rethink your comment.

[Elizabeth Bear]

Guys, please take any theological arguments to another forum.