I love the LotR books, altho even as a teenager I saw the leisurely attitude Tolkein took toward pacing. His goal wasn't a rip-roaring adventure, tho. It was immersion in this world he created. I adored the languages, the genealogies, and all the other stuff in the appendices.

Jeffery's paragraph is the very hinge of the whole epic. Sam is the one character in all Middle Earth who confronts the power of the ring on its own terms and beats it. Note the phrase "untameable save by some mighty will". Who is that will? It's not Frodo (he succumbs in the end), and it's not Gandalf or Aragorn (they keep away from the ring). It's Sam.

I was misinformed. All the ladies in Paris were fully dressed.

Hey, did you know they have this giant frickin' antenna in the middle of the city? Also, they have an arch that doesn't, you know, arch over anything. Crazy town, man. On the plus side: pretty nice subway system.

The one set to "A Little Less Conversation" makes me remember how much I love Keanu Reeves. I just wish I loved his movies as much.

And the same for Elvis, actually. Keanu is like Elvis + Harrison Ford / 5.

I'll have to catch up with it later. I'll be on a cruise ship in the Adriatic.

Meh. Altho I'm from a small town to the south, I tell people I'm from South Bend, Indiana, because they maybe have heard of that (Notre Dame University and all). But when I went to the Netherlands I told people I was from "around Chicago". You adjust to your audience.

I'm rather more knowledgeable about the UK than the average Joe because I'm steeped in English literature and British comedy. Even so, I view all of Europe like vintage Universal horror movies: an English-speaking, tweed-wearing, castle-owning, steam-train-riding pastiche.

On the other hand, more than one Dutchman said to me, "Chicago? Oh! Al Capone!"