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Wow, then maybe 20 bucks is worth it. Happy Hour was a thing in the U.K. in pubs and wine bars 20 years ago but I hadn’t seen one for years, so they were a surprise in Canada. A lot of places here do it (and almost as many do brunch).

Depends on how big the portions are and so on though, doesn’t it? Pub or Mexican nachos here in Metro Vancouver are likely to be about $13-5 and are enough for one person or two as a side, but they’re probably $7-10 at Happy Hour. But many places will do smaller portions at Happy Hour. (For...

“To smash your burgers, to see them lined up before you, to hear the lamentations of your servers.” OK, if we’re looking for a dish or dish type, I’d have to say ramen. So many options and done well they’re all delicious - my favourite is probably Yokohama ramen but I’ve no problems at all with...

Yes, quite a few FF villains got name checked (Diablo, Puppet Master, Wizard) though of course we only saw one (Mole Man).

Bowing as a polite greeting is still common. Bowing to get cash from your parents, less so. Saehae bogil is not a normal standing bow but a full kowtow (they’re kneeling or sitting on the floor; you approach them, kneel, and touch your forehead to the ground).

I think it very likely that Doom is an alternate Tony, because if nothing else Tony is histrionic enough to name himself Doom after he breaks bad. Maybe he runs into an actual Victor von Doom during his multiverse romp and copies his style. There’s no suggestion in the FF film that Reed or...

Well, for many years from my childhood onwards we had saehae bogil (or saebae), the Korean tradition of bowing to your parents on New Year’s Day and being given money. As we got older my dad insisted on traditional precedence. So my older brother went first, then me, then my sister-in-law, then...

A food rather than a dish? But not an ingredient? Tough. Bulgogi. It adds well to a lot of things.

This would of course be the approach of any sensible government but I’m really not sure there are many of those about in these troubled times. Sadly I can’t think of a modern government about whom I’d be even slightly surprised when it turned out that they’d tried to blackmail Superman by...

Thank you! But I don’t think Sam and Steve, either in the comics or the films, are the same character, or should be. You shouldn’t be expected to be a moral paragon just because you put on a flag this morning, that’s a recipe for disaster (sorry about that, John Walker). Comics Steve is the OG...

I think Sam is growing well into his role as Cap and Mackie is doing a fine job with that. His basic themes (continued from FatWS) are still strong and developed well in BNW. The aerial battle scenes are great; the only quibble I’d have is that they should really be against the Chinese navy, not...

Ah, I think it could have been worse. Tim Blake Nelson and Harrison Ford were both entertaining, I just wish it didn’t feel like an extended episode of Falcon & the Winter Soldier. (It also helps make Sam feel petty at a distance in the post-credits sequence of Thunderbolts where he’s...

It’s about half what you’d pay in most places in Vancouver, but it really depends - there are some places almost that cheap. CAD = 1.25NZD. Just about the cheapest place to get fed around here is, of course, the Costco food court - $10 (USD7.50 or GBP 5.50) for a slice of pizza and enough...

Well, I saw a truly colossal number of films (for me) at the cinema this year so I’m spoiled for choice. However I’ll go with: Best film: This is Spinal Tap. RIP Rob Reiner. Film I enjoyed the most: Fantastic Mr Fox. For my money, the best Wes Anderson. Worst film: Ahh, this is kind of harsh...

Yes, you need something like that, otherwise no kryptonite is getting anywhere near Earth.

Moderation by Elaine Castillo is a lovely book; I didn't think I would really like it, but I do, and not just because it's the book that pushed me across the 300 line for this year (I didn't think I'd make it). It starts with our protagonist Girlie, a hard-as-nails Filipina-American who's one of...

The problem is regime changes in your own government, then. If you’d signed up as Captain Britain in 2005, you might have serious concerns about what the new PM might do in 2010, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2024, etc; many of those new incumbents might be known for ignoring advisers and civil servants and...

In practical terms, you first need to limit your recognisability in public as much as possible. So a full body suit with a mask covering your entire face (and preferably changing the shape of your head) is essential, and preferably something changing your voice that doesn’t require constant...

Nah, we got absolutely tons of US content and still do. Probably not as much as Canada, however, who had to formulate the CanCon (Canadian content) rules for broadcasting to fund a decent level of local content, giving us such classics as Forever Knight, Schitt’s Creek, SCTV, Due South, Kim’s...

I’m drawing on the older version who was a peasant and a rebel; the bit about him liking King Richard (and being a noble himself) is fairly late (18th century onwards) to make rich people feel better.