Nobody thinks the experience is identical.

Criticism is important, but I think that there's a big difference between critique and insult.

It's definitely a thing on here for people to pretend they're doing the former when they're really doing the later. "How can anyone like this pile of garbage book? I'm just asking for an explanation. What am I missing about this shitty book that makes people think this terrible author is any good?" isn't criticism.

I mean, yes? I know it's okay to not like a book. That's... literally what I opened my comment with? It's okay if you don't like a book.

It's absolutely okay for people to not like books that we like. You don't have to think the book is good. That doesn't make it "a hoax," and, personally, I don't think it's particularly productive discussion or particularly civil to launch into a hyperbolic screed about "what the fuck is this shit?"

To be honest, the whole complaint mostly reads like sour grapes (I mean, really "how dare you?" to the author because they published something you don't like that got critical acclaim?) or like "I don't get this work, so there's something wrong with everyone who did get it," which kind of says more about you than about fans of the book.

Inman Square is a decent area; you'll be close to the Red Line, which will get you downtown, and you're easy walking distance to Harvard Square.

Be aware that the public transit around Boston is... uh... not amazing right now. So, just be prepared for delays and long waits.

The bar scene around Boston is fine, but our public transit shuts down before the bars close, so that's tricky, depending on how late you're planning to be out. In Massachusetts, bars close at 2am by law. That said, there are tons of bars in/around Cambridge, including some classic pubs. Davis Square, which is farther up the red line a few stops, has the Burren, for example. You definitely do not need to head into Boston to find good pubs (though there are lots of cool pubs all around Boston, as well).

As far as the accent goes... it won't hurt, but it won't help you anywhere near as much as that movie shows; Boston is a very, very international city. People come to Boston from all over the world to attend college or grad school or to work. It's super common to hear people with accents.

You know that it's okay if you don't like a book? That doesn't make it garbage. It's okay for other people to like a thing that you don't.

That's fine, too; I'm not suggesting that the only way to read books is to annotate them, just explaining why someone would want to. It's cool if that's not how you enjoy them, but making annotations isn't an "academic exercise" for me and it's not extra work, it's just a thing I do sometimes, especially if I'm particularly moved by a book. I read books for entertainment and because I find them informative. I revisit books with some frequency for various reasons, so the annotations are useful and entertaining.

It's not defacing a book if it's your book.

Why wouldn't you?

I have books that my grandmother owned; when I read them and see her annotations and notes, it makes me feel closer to her. It's nice to have a record of things she thought were important or what she was thinking about when she was reading. I like it when I revisit a book and see reminders of what I was thinking about or what I thought was important.

If you own the book, why wouldn't you underline things that were important to you or make small notes about things you're thinking about?

They're your books; it's not ruining them if you make notes and find value in them.

I don't buy my books as an investment. I buy them to read them. Sometimes I underline or make notations about particularly powerful passages/lines, or I make notes about things I have questions about or to remind myself about something I looked up. Sometimes I make notes about my thoughts about the plot if it's something like a mystery, where I'm trying to keep track of my deductions, etc.

I like seeing my notations later, when I reread the book. Sometimes Past Me gets things SO WRONG that it makes me laugh, but other times, Past Me has interesting insights that Present Me has forgotten about.

I also like it when I buy books and stumble on other people's notations, though; so my opinion about notations is pretty positive.

I've seen it both ways, tbh. I've seen legit criticism dismissed out of hand because "you don't get it..." and I've seen people whose criticism didn't seem very legit, to me, because they clearly didn't get the book.

> In fact, if the book is supposed to shine attention on an important subject, there should be even more emphasis on good research and strong writing to support the message.

Meh; I don't know about this. "If your book is trying to tackle an important subject, you should be held to a higher standard than other books" is weird, personally.

All that said, I think that being empathetic to other readers is valuable. A book that I might not enjoy but that clearly resonates with a group because it tackles discrimination against that group (for example) might deserve a little bit of a kinder critical eye, I think. Like, if it's really resonating that much with people who have actually experienced what the book is talking about, maybe there's something there? I might not like the writing style as much as some other book, but that shouldn't prevent me from appreciating what the book is doing and how it's finding its audience, and maybe it should inspire me to look more closely at why it's resonating with folks?

I mean, like I said, I'm not a lawyer, but the gift form also states:

>An exemption from the sales or use tax for a motor vehicle transferred as a gift is provided for in the Massachusetts regulations and statutes. In order to be exempt from the sales and use tax, you must meet the requirements of the law and complete the affidavit above. You must fill in all blanks and print or type your entries, except at the end of the affidavit where your signatures
are required.

​

My non-lawyer interpretation would be that two things must be true: the person gifting the car must have met the laws of the state they registered it in *and* the gift must also meet the exemption requirements set out in the MA regulations and statues.

This is likely a question that needs an actual lawyer to answer, unfortunately.

I am not a lawyer, but, according to the Mass.gov website, transfers to family are only exempt from paying sales tax if the original owner paid MA sales tax on the vehicle.

https://www.mass.gov/guides/motor-vehicle-and-trailer-sales-and-use-tax

Under exemptions:

>Family transfer (Form MVU-26) – As long as the transferor paid any Massachusetts sales or use tax before, casually selling or transferring a motor vehicle or trailer to a:
>
>*Parent

*Spouse

*Child, or

*Sibling

Is exempt from the tax. A vehicle owned jointly by a married couple may be treated as owned by either.

Lyft.

"Why pay for things when stealing them is easy?!" is definitely a lifehack.

Is this just bait?

Why would you be worried?

It's legal. It's no different than running into your boss at a liquor store or having a drink at a bar. It's only awkward if you two make it awkward, but, ultimately, you're both human beings who do things like have a beer now and then or take edibles or whatever.

Who cares? Don't make a thing out of it.

The theatrical cut is way better than the Director's Cut of Donnie Darko; some of the extra scenes should have been included as extras on the discs, but the director's cut really messes up the pacing and flow, has a worse soundtrack, imo.

I always use a five point scale:

1 - This movie is terrible and highly flawed. I regret watching it and would actively discourage people from seeing it.

2 - This is a seriously flawed movie but there's something redeeming about it (e.g. The premise and script are good, but the special effects are terrible or the casting is bad, or it's a mostly good movie but the lead performer is just completely terrible, etc.). I'm not recommending this movie to most people.

3 - This is a fine/neutral movie; it's probably a totally fine popcorn flick or a completely mediocre but enjoyable movie that I'll probably forget about completely a few months after I watched it.

4 - This is a good movie! This is something I'm probably recommending, especially to fans of the genre. The film might have some flaws but they're mostly minor and far outweighed by the things the film does right; this might be a mediocre film elevated by some particularly outstanding performances or a really great film that just misses a couple of marks, but, ultimately, this is the kind of movie that I finish and I'm excited to talk about.

5 - This is a nearly perfect movie; I'm likely recommending this to almost everyone, and I'll have to dig really deep to come up with flaws if pressed. This is the kind of movie that I'll still be talking about or rewatching for a long time and will hold up when asked about amazing movies.

Dreamcast - I've loved a lot of consoles in my days, but the Dreamcast still holds a special place. So many great/weird/awesome games, and it came out at a perfect time in my life when I was living with friends, so we'd all crowd on the couch and play stuff like Powerstone. Good times.

How much too big is it? Have you measured it with the door off to see if that makes the difference? How old is this thing and how did they get it up there in the first place?

If it's too wide for the stairs, cutting it up might be your only option unless there's some way to get it out a window, but that's going to be expensive too.

I mean, it's going to be almost 50 on Thursday and we don't have daytime highs lower than 35 until next week, so I'm not sure I'd point to one day of snow that's likely to be gone before the end of the week as a serious break from the weird mildness of winter so far. It's going to be February before we have daytime temps that stay below freezing for more than a single day. That's very weird.

The phones were out when the family left, but were repaired by the time he orders a pizza. The repair guy says they were "a mess" so it can explain the family's inability to get through to Kevin, but they could have been up long enough for him to call for pizza and, later, the police.

It's a dumb meme that ignores that Kevin is also only 7 years old *and* that he attempted to avoid the entire confrontation multiple times by trying to convince both Harry and Marv that he was not, in fact, home alone. On the first night, he runs around, turning on the lights, to convince them that someone is still in the house. On the second night, he stages a party to make them think people are home. It's only when they come back a third time that he resorts to physical confrontation, fighting back.

Also, you know... it's a movie.

Whether you're missing something is really subjective; Hemmingway isn't for everyone, and he's writing about a war that ended over 100 years ago and a lot of the book is heavy on subtext, so, maybe it's just not your thing?

To answer your more specific question: Henry is a medic/ambulance driver. A lot of that work was transporting people off the battlefield; here's an article about what that work looked like: http://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/greatwar/exhibits/show/military/across_globe_across_diag/gendered-experiences

And, yes, he drinks a lot. The book depicts the banal horror of WWI, and what it does to people. As you can imagine, people living through a warzone are not notoriously happy, well-adjusted people.

I like both, as long as they're well done.

This is sort of like the Alfred Hitchcock quote about the bomb at breakfast; Type 1 creates suspense. Type 2 is a mystery. Both have a place.

Type 1 is a reverse whodunnit, and it can be used to create a lot of tension, because the question isn't "who did it," but "will they get caught/will the police notice the thing we already know?" Usually, there's some kind of clock is ticking (metaphorically, but sometimes literally), before the criminal gets away or before someone else dies, etc. See every single episode of Columbo or something like Dial M For Murder.

Type 2 is just a regular whodunnit, where the tension is trying to figure out, well, who did it.

Both are great.

Shout out to the auto-mod about "line" vs. "branch"; what an amazing example of passive aggressive pettiness regarding a wildly used term that confuses zero people and will do exactly nothing to change how people refer to it.

Brighton is fine without a car, with the usual caveat that the T is pretty much a dumpster fire all the time. You can definitely get to Cambridge, but it'll obviously take more time than if you drove. Getting a bike will help, but you can easily take the B line up and grab the 66 to Cambridge.