Fair enough. I guess I should say that the group calling for the “reclamation” of the Middle East for Christianity was not the indigenous people. The Romans were a colonial power in the Middle East, so saying that a Roman Pope could call for a reclamation is like Great Britain trying to reclaim India.

While I may have gone too far in saying Christianity has not taken root in the Middle East, I stand by my central thesis that the Crusades were wars of aggression.

Well the bottom picture was them trying to reclaim lost lands. Neither event was clean.

Are you referring to the Crusades? Those weren’t really Christians “trying to reclaim lost lands,” since the Middle East was never “owned” by Christians. Christianity, especially Catholicism never really took root in the Middle East until much later, so the Pope declaring that all good Christians should join the Crusades really was a war of aggression.

On the other hand, you could be referring to the reclamation of Spain, but I don’t think that’s what that painting is depicting.

Isn’t the whole album based on Animal Farm? Might as well just read that, since you could probably read the whole book in the time it takes to listen to a Pink Floyd album

I have done this before when I needed to make one adjustment to a preexisting spreadsheet. If I don’t have my laptop and someone tells me about a change to a project, sometimes I’ll just make a note in my phone, but if it’s a quick fix, sometimes I’ll pull up the spreadsheet and fix it right away to avoid forgetting.

But that’s far and away the exception

I see your point, although it doesn’t match my anecdotal experience. People from the Twin Cities might vote differently than people in the small rural towns, but many of the everyday attitudes and cultural associations are pretty similar statewide, regardless of whether they are rural or urban. And in my experience, people from the Cities have a lot more in common culturally with the eastern Dakotas, Iowa, and Wisconsin than they do with Chicago and rural Illinois or with Montana and Wyoming.

Granted I only married into a Minnesotan family and my experience with the Dakotas is fairly limited, but I would have said that they’re a pretty broad spectrum from east to west, especially in South Dakota. Rapid City is definitely pretty similar to Montana and Wyoming, but Mitchell, Sioux Falls, and Fargo are all far more similar to Minnesota

Then again, I’m thinking “culturally” not “politically,” so if you’re thinking about how they vote, you’re probably right that they’re likely more similar to MT than MN.

Yes, thank you for making the same point the other poster had already made.

Gotcha. I knew they had spread from Alaska to Panama, so I thought they’d moved into South America and Eurasia as well

Where do you live that there are cows but not coyotes? I thought coyotes were more or less a worldwide nuisance anywhere rural enough to have cattle.

I loved the setting for this game, if not the game itself.

Plus, doesn’t anyone else remember Tailspin? I swear this was a real show and not an elaborate fever dream from my childhood.

Get out of Malibu London, deadbeat!

As for running, it is indeed quite hard on everything. I generally prefer biking, which I find a lot more fun and less straining on the body.

Until you crash, and then it takes you forever to heal as you get older. Swimming is good, but if you’ve spent your whole life in the water like I have, you wind up with burnt out rotator cuffs, etc.

Basically, any repetitive exercise will destroy you over time. Best to mix it up as much as possible

“Good fences make good neighbors”

~Robert Frost

slow clap

I liked the meme, but your comment got an actual chuckle from me. Thanks for the laugh, friend

So maybe it’s better to just accept that many great works are never finished so that other, greater works can get made instead.

I don’t remember where I first heard this, but “works of art are never finished, merely abandoned.”

Every creator always has things that they would continue to tweak or adjust about their works, stopping only when they get distracted or are faced with a hard deadline.

I’m not mad at it, but what’s with all the orb memes today? Hasn’t this meme been around forever?

Me too. I was really wondering what sort of interview this was.

Not, you’re thinking of Deadshot. A deadlock is a Scottish body of water that has been polluted to the point that no life exists in the lake.

That’s a good point. I’m familiar with the concept, but didn’t realize it had been formalized so distinctly, so I suppose you’re right.

It’s interesting, though, because one would think that’s there’s always going to be a balancing act between wanting to make your message more well known and wanting to keep it unadulterated.