Search results

I didn't say it wasn't intentional - it's just anybody who says that Elfs uses "Elfs" because it's the preferred pre-Tolkien spelling is smoking crack, because (A) they didn't use it for that reason and (B) it's not the preferred pre-Tolkien spelling. They use "Elfs" for the same reason Orcz...

Nah, "elves" had taken the field long before JRR was a gleam in his daddy's eye. Only one author in Bartleby (Hawthorne) uses the "elfs" form. Even Shakespeare elved it.

Goldang - how about asking us what happens when an irresistable force meets an immovable object instead?

He buys "L" monogrammed sweaters in bulk.

Up until the late 80s, it was believed that the characteristics of Neptune's orbit might imply the existence of a large planet beyond its orbit. Then after Voyager 2's flyby, it turned out that Neptune's mass had been overestimated, and the 10th-planet correction turned out to be unnecessary...

Despite Feng Shui's (formerly known as geomancy) current popularity in the US, I've never seen it play a big role in either recent fantasy films or earlier literature.

Marvel Comics would sue for trademark infringement.

There's a general notion that the infrasonics are a key component to the supposed atavistic fear response.

http://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/LN12-19-97/dinosaur_story.html

Maybe she commanded the zombie to destroy itself. Presumably, a zombie can commit "suicide" with a dagger, since you can destroy one with a dagger.

Turanil mentioned that one as well, and I'll concur: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093978/ Note once again the appearance of the antisocial Daoist, the ghost-hunting swordsman. In contrast to Green Snake, where the Daoist is largely an inept clown (though not completely without craft), this one...

Etruscans are sexy - if you want a sexy theory about something in Roman culture, you connect it to the Etruscans. If it was Etruscan, I would assume the original would have been "ark" or "arks" (cf. Parsna -> Porsenna) but to me the morphology just doesn't have that Etruscan ring to it. If it...

I would say it depends on whether you indicated that you would prefer a full-time position when you got hired. If your boss knows you want full time already, I'd say there's nothing wrong with it. On the other hand, if they hired you for PT because you said you weren't looking for FT, that could...

And you can't get away with "ho" either.

An Etruscan origin would require shifting the 'o' too - Etruscan famously lacked an o sound (possibly related to the peculiarly Latin shift of the 2nd declension stem from o to u). Lewis and Short consider it to be native. Etymologies of gods' names are always difficult because their cults...

Really? Which ones?

Green Snake 青蛇 (White Snake, Green Snake) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106559/ is another good film for this. You get to see both the stereotype Buddhist monk caster and the stereotype mad Daoist caster (Daoists are almost invariably portrayed as weird, scroungy, and antisocial in Chinese...

Isn't that from Orlando Furioso? I don't think that incident is in the original Chanson. Ariosto obviously meant the "orc" to be a sea monster there too, so it's probably not very directly related. Tolkien himself said he got it from Old English.

Shapechanging, life-extension, flight (leaping, and fast travel too), speed, Buddhist magic often has a strong counter-magic theme too.

Daoist or Buddhist? The Chinese Buddhist magical tradition is big on scriptures, reciting them, writing them on objects, that sort of thing. Daoists are more inclined to what would be called alchemy in the West. Both traditions placed an emphasis on asceticism, but Buddhists tended to be more...